Chelsea set to make £55m transfer decision after Victor Osimhen greenlight and two more deals

Less than one week after a mini transfer deadline day to encapsulate most of what Chelsea’s recruitment has been about in recent years, the window will be open again. This time, instead of having a 10-day limit, there is over two-and-a-half months to go at.

From June 16, Chelsea will have all the way up until September 1 to complete their business, with three full Premier League matchdays passed by that stage. That includes all of the Club World Cup, whatever holiday the players get afterwards, and then however ‘pre-season’ is managed from there.

It promises to be chaotic, even if a decent chunk of work has already been done. In Liam Delap, Chelsea have a striker to compete with Nicolas Jackson or, if nothing else, offer backup and a much-needed rotation option.

A striker was always going to be central to Chelsea’s plans and it is to the club’s credit that they got Delap over the line so soon after winning the Conference League and qualifying for the Champions League – a matter which had a large part in making a persuasive argument over alternative options. It also allows Chelsea to attack the rest of the window with less pressure on signing another centre forward.

Others still remain in the conversation, including Hugo Ekitike (although not for the demanded £84.5million from Eintracht Frankfurt) and Nick Woltemade. Viktor Gyokeres and Victor Osimhen will always be in the mix as long as they are available, even if a move to Chelsea is highly unlikely.

With Delap through the door, Chelsea can approach all of these potential deals from a position of relative strength given they have already upgraded simply by providing Enzo Maresca with cover up front, something he did not have last season in any meaningful way. Despite the online noise around Ekitike, none of this was close to happening last Tuesday (when the window shut for six days).

Instead, Chelsea focused their attempts on signing Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund and Mike Maignan from Milan. In the end, nothing was done.

It wasn’t without drama, though. Chelsea went from making an approach for Maignan to things collapsing within a matter of days. The valuation gap between the two sides was too big to overcome and it now seems unlikely that he will be revisited, at least not immediately, when the window opens again.

Maignan is thought to have been keen on making the move despite new Milan manager Max Allegri trying to convince him to stay. With only 12 months left on his contract at San Siro, Maignan’s future remains up in the air.

Chelsea then made the surprise call to leave out Djordje Petrovic from their Club World Cup squad. He had been expected to fight with Robert Sanchez in America for the first-choice spot. After a strong season in Ligue 1 at BlueCo-owned RC Strasbourg, Petrovic had a genuine case to say he deserved a chance.

However, it has been suggested that he was unsettled by the goalkeeping uncertainty and opted to stay away from the travelling group in order to prioritise summer stability, likely away from Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, meanwhile, are keeping their options open in goal after viewing Maignan as a market opportunity.

The real drama came with Gittens. He had agreed a long-term contract before the deadline but Chelsea and Dortmund could not accept terms between them over a fee.

Two bids were made for Gittens in an attempt to get things over the line prior to the Club World Cup – because players signed after the June 10 deadline would not be able to feature until the knockout stages – but there was no consensus. Instead, Dortmund continued to ask for £50million, which was almost double Chelsea’s first bid.

Whereas Chelsea had been willing to spend £13million on Maignan and later £42million on Gittens (a combined £55million) they ended up with neither. The call will now have to be made over whether or not either deal is possible once the window opens again.

For Maignan, it looks more unlikely. Gittens, however, is a longer-term target. The one hiccup here is that Dortmund decided to select him in their squad for the Club World Cup. That cup-ties him for the whole tournament, regardless of if he plays.

Therefore, Chelsea have less to gain with going straight back in for him. They will also have to do some serious negotiating to try and get the price down.

These are decisions that will be made in the next week as business starts again. Once it gets going, it is unlikely to stop. There is a loud and rocky path ahead in a crucial summer for the club. Starting this week, Chelsea will be back under the microscope again and they cannot shrink with huge judgements to make.