No ambition? Chelsea are building a winning squad

No one can doubt the ambition of the club now

So often on Twitter I’ve had to field questions and read tweets and articles on the lack of ambition by Clearlake / Boehly. I’ve seen many people say they want to run the club into the ground, will be satisfied just having a decent team, just want to sell academy players or our best players, and don’t have any ambition.

You can think what you like about our owners, I’m not here to change anyone’s mind. Some people don’t like or trust them, others think they’re destroying our soul, whilst still others think they’re incompetent chancers. Everyone is fully entitled to their views.

In terms of ambition, let’s outline what they’ve shown. We’ve now spent £1.2 billion on players, a net spend of over £700m. This is before the potential purchases of Jadon Sancho and one of Victor Osimhen or Ivan Toney on deadline day (all of which may not happen, of course, you never know). Remember, Liverpool have made just one signing this summer as we speak, and they aren’t even joining until 2025.

The fact we’re going for players of this quality for our attack, the level and quality of investment in the squad and in top young talent like Estevao Wilian, Kendry Paez, Aaron Anselmino and Andrey Santos shows not only are the owners and sporting directors committed to success, but to long term sustainable success.

Chelsea could soon have an attacking line up of Victor Osimhen/Ivan Toney, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho, Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer, Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Noni Mudueke, 8 players for 3 positions essentially - and that’s if Mikhaylo Mydryk goes on loan, as I think would be necessary if Sancho signed.

That would be one of the best attacking units in Europe, yet alone the PL, and in the main with their prime years still ahead. What’s scary is that two of them would probably have to leave next summer with Paez and Estevao arriving.

I’m pretty sure the rush to build the entire squad in 18 months is motivated largely by the likelihood of a transfer ban, potentially for up to two years. This could come into effect even by January 2025, depending on what happens with the charges from the Roman Abramovich era we self reported. So we need to be prepared.

We’d have a squad which wouldn’t need much tinkering for a while, with young talent on loan or ready to join next summer in Estevao, Paez, Santos, Ugochukwu, Anselmino and new GK signing Mike Penders to come in and refresh and improve the squad next summer if needed. We also have plenty of players to sell and bring in revenue next summer, without needing to offset any purchases, which of course is good for the clubs finances.

I’ve always said, and indeed our co-owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have too, that the goal is to win.

They know the way to make the biggest profits for Chelsea and increase the value of the club is regular Champions League football and winning / competing for the biggest trophies regularly. They also know you need to invest in the squad for this to happen, hence the huge investment in the last 18 months. They’ve paid for this by clever accounting, and also selling players. By the end of this window, they’ll have likely brought in over £500m in player sales since purchasing Chelsea. They’ve also achieved this whilst cutting the wage bill by over 50%.

The idea they want to run the club into the ground, have no ambition, and just want to sell all our best players is laughable. They’re showing their ambition with the level of spending, and calibre of players they’ve brought in, and are now targeting in attack.

If we add Sancho and Osimhen, we should be finishing top 4 this season, potentially even top 3, and winning the Conference League. And this team will mature and improve over time, as they get older and Maresca’s coaching improves them, so that would likely be just the beginning.

There’s no mistaking it now. Chelsea are building a squad to win.

The Score