Athletic: £70m Chelsea deals show Blues’ new transfer approach to blow away rivals | OneFootball

On the back of Chelsea confirming two deals for players this month, Simon Johnson of the Athletic has done a really interesting piece looking the the unusual move of securing two deals in March, and what that tells us about the club’s transfer strategy going forward.

The new ownership has already taken a fairly novel approach to the market in general – signing almost exclusively young players, putting everyone on extremely long contracts, and being happy to buy and sell at an almost unprecedented rate, especially for a top team.

According to Johnson, this spring business is something else they think gives them an edge. The Blues “want this to be a habit,” as they work on deals in advance and get the jump on their rivals.

In the case of Dario Essugo and Geovany Quenda, the two transfer confirmed this month, there was a lot of interest in both, particularly from Manchester United who have appointed the pair’s former manager from Sporting CP, Ruben Amorim.

As Johnson’s piece notes, there are plenty of other advantages to getting your business done early too, especially in making sure your new additions can hit the ground running for next season.

It helps the coach too – they get time to know what players can do, where the squad needs to be tweaked, and how they could set up for the campaign ahead.

Chelsea learn from Caicedo debacle

Moises Caicedo celebrates scoring against Manchester United. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

The shining example of what not to do has already been demonstrated by these sporting directors back in 2023. They chased Moises Caicedo all summer trying to negotiate Brighton’s price down, ended up paying more than full price in August, and denied the midfielder a whole summer of acclimatising at his new club.

It was a disaster, but one they seem to have learned from.