Chelsea and deadline day. Deadline day and Chelsea. The two have been inseparable for over two decades.
Drama undoubtedly follows. Often there are a number of bad decisions. Sometimes those are planned for, sometimes they are actually planned.
What can always be relied on is transfer chaos. Transfer confusion. Transfers. Deals in and out of Stamford Bridge. Carnage. Bodies. Planes, medicals, agents, phone calls. Ambitious owners (Russian-Israeli or American). Directors of football.
Cars enter Cobham and cars leave. Enzo Maresca is the man in the middle this time. He will have to deal with the noise and uncertainty in the final day-and-a-bit before the 7pm deadline on September 1.
His side have been busy again. The areas for improvement signalled at the end of last season have been addressed with window dressing and exits to be finalised. Any more incomings at this stage are bonuses that have been long in the making.
Here, football.london goes through what we could still see happen at Stamford Bridge before the window slams shut.
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Ins
You can never say never at Chelsea, and there is nothing simple about how all of this might play out. It says plenty for how the weekend started that signing Alejandro Garnacho on Saturday night – a 21-year-old winger from a historic rival who has a point to prove to his new fans, for £40million – hardly makes the top five most notable things to happen over a four hour period.
He had been waiting for Chelsea all summer and the idea was to pressure Manchester United into selling for a lower fee, especially after Ruben Amorim told him he could leave in front of the squad. Chelsea have played their cards, speaking up to Garnacho privately but not rushing to the table for talks.
Now the transfer is complete. He will come in as an immediate Premier League-proven option on the left. The question many have been asking is why Chelsea appear to have prioritised Garnacho over Xavi Simons.
An agreement over personal terms with Simons was reached over a month ago but progress was slow. RB Leipzig had discussed other players heading to Germany in a part-swap but nothing came of it.
Instead, Chelsea have had to wait until Christopher Nkunku (more on him to come) and Nicolas Jackson were in a firm position to leave before moving forward. That created room in the squad, avoiding a bottle neck situation, and freed up space in the UEFA A-List squad cost balance calculations.
Simons was notified of interest from Tottenham, though, who were desperate to buy a No.10 after missing out on Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze. Within two days he was holding a Spurs shirt after it was felt that Simons would prefer Chelsea.
After Simons, Chelsea are pressing on with trying to get Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez. He has emerged late on as a candidate for one of the attacking roles along with Facundo Buonanotte on loan.
This is all without mentioning the true chaos around Jackson. He arrived in Munich on Saturday afternoon expecting to finalise a loan with an option to buy that could have recouped almost £70million in total. Jackson had barely landed when he was informed that Chelsea wished to call off the deal following Liam Delap’s injury early on in the 2-0 win over Fulham.
Jackson’s camp are determined to get him to Bayern Munich, either on a permanent (as Chelsea are now holding out for)or a loan. Chelsea want him back in London to play for them but might have to course correct and sell him in order to buy a replacement who has not had bridges burnt.
It is chaos of the highest order and Chelsea could yet recall Marc Guiu, buy a new striker, or end up with Jackson playing for them again. It is impossible to predict. One way or another, there are at least two, if not three or four transfers to happen here.
Outs
Outside of Jackson, who could now join Nkunku in leaving permanently, Chelsea do still have work to cut back their bomb squad. Others they want to move on are Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling, but their large wages and increasing time since last being in form is making it tough to find genuine suitors. Axel Disasi has options across the Premier League and Europe.
Tyrique George appears to be closing in on a permanent exit to Roma despite coming on (and then being subbed back off) against Fulham. He would face added competition for minutes at Chelsea, especially if both Garnacho and another attacker arrive.
Chelsea could yet complete further domestic loans with Alex Matos among those needing to leave. Alfie Gilchrist joined West Brom on a permanent deal earlier in the week.
In total, Chelsea will be hopefully of having at least six more first-team adjacent moves sorted by the end of deadline day. Add in two, maybe three incomings and there is plenty of work to be done.
