During Mauricio Pochettino’s first summer as Chelsea manager, the Blues spent more than Tottenham Hotspur had across all 11 transfer windows during the Argentine’s spell in north London.
Yet, Pochettino still isn’t satisfied by the club’s recruitment.
Christopher Nkunku’s injury-plagued opening six months at the club has been a constant spoke in the wheel for Pochettino’s plans at Chelsea. As fears grew over the severity of Nkunku’s hip issue and with Nicolas Jackson away with Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, Pochettino wondered aloud whether Chelsea needed a new striker.
“We need to be very clinical to take some decisions to think and see how we fix the problem,” Pochettino pointedly outlined ahead of Fulham’s visit in mid-January.
While that’s not a guarantee that Chelsea will pull the trigger in the transfer window, there are some realistic options that could give the manager one less headache.
Pochettino insisted that Chelsea do not need to sell players to fund any transfers this month despite the club’s wild spending under the BlueCo ownership. However, not all Premier League teams can call upon as much economic flexibility.
Newcastle United may boast the richest owners in football but a net spend of £350m over the past three seasons is going to attract the inscrutable gaze of the Premier League’s financial authorities.
If the Magpies are forced to sacrifice any players, Chelsea would be one of several clubs in the queue for Alexander Isak (per Football Transfers). The rubbery Swedish striker has scored 19 top-flight goals across his first 18 months in English football (one every 135 minutes), comfortably more than any Chelsea player has accrued over the same period.
While Isak offers proven Premier League output, it won’t come cheap.
Chelsea must act fast to secure the services of Paulo Dybala for a ludicrous cut-price fee of £10.3m. A release clause in Dybala’s contract at Roma only lasts until 15 January but if Chelsea do trigger it, the decision will be solely up to Dybala (according to Fabrizio Romano).
Dybala is as brittle as glass but when he does get onto the pitch, he has still proven to be the difference for Jose Mourinho’s stodgy Roma side. Creaky but crafty, the 30-year-old is an inexpensive gamble for Chelsea to take. The Blues have certainly made bigger bets on far more volatile deals in the recent past.
Dominic Solanke joined Chelsea’s under-eight team but only played 17 minutes for the senior side before heading to Liverpool in 2017. Still only 26, Solanke is enjoying the best form of his career in the Premier League under Bournemouth’s new boss Andoni Iraola.
Much like Pochettino, Iraola is a self-confessed disciple of Marcelo Bielsa. It took Solanke and his colleagues a couple of months to fully understand Iraola’s demands but the Cherries have well and truly “clicked”, to use Solanke’s analysis.
Unsurprisingly, Bournemouth are reluctant to lose their talisman mid-season, with owner Bill Foley declaring: “The door’s closed and bolted shut.” However, it may creak open if Chelsea jangle a big enough pot of cash.
Girona director Pere Guardiola – brother to Pep – has revealed that no offers have been made for top scorer Artem Dovbyk this month but that was before Nkunku’s injury shifted Chelsea’s priorities.
The burly striker only arrived in Catalonia last summer for a club-record fee of £6.5m but may be lured away halfway through Girona’s unlikely La Liga title challenge.
Dominant in the air and deft on the turf, Dovbyk’s unwavering self-belief will be crucial if he is to break Chelsea’s striker curse. Ahead of his surprise call-up for Ukraine at Euro 2020, Dovbyk promised: “If I get my chance, I’ll definitely score.” In the one 14-minute cameo he was afforded, Dovbyk thumped in a stoppage-time winner against Sweden in the round of 16.
At the halfway stage of the Eredivisie season, AZ Alkmaar’s Vangelis Pavlidis is one goal shy of matching the tally that won the division’s Golden Boot last term.
The 25-year-old Greek forward has caught the eye of several clubs but extreme caution should be exercised. No player in the Dutch top flight or any of Europe’s top five leagues has outperformed their xG by a larger margin than Pavlidis this season.
The average forward would have been expected to score 11 league goals based on the quality of chances presented to Pavlidis, yet he has plundered 18. Unless he has morphed into one of the best finishers the sport has ever seen over the past six months, Pavlidis’ hot streak will eventually cool.
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