“Maresca needs a unicorn” – Chelsea have obvious next transfer move | OneFootball

Liam Twomey’s piece in the Athletic today is a really excellent summary of the interesting position Chelsea find themselves in with regards to transfers.

He makes the point that we’ve been making – now that the major rush of recruitment is over, and the squad has been reshaped from top to bottom with young players, what comes next?

Do you buy a top striker, or let Nicolas Jackson continue to develop? Do you buy a top right back or let Malo Gusto keep growing into his role? Do you really want to buy more attacking reinforcements when there’s already no room Christopher Nkunku, and two world class talents are arriving next summer?

If the project is “buy young players and develop them,” once you’ve got 25 young players in your squad there’s not much left to do other than twiddle your thumbs.

Robert Sanchez fouls Rasmus Hojlund. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Chelsea left with one obvious avenue to improve team from good to great

Twomey comes to the same conclusions we have, largely: there is only one position in the team which doesn’t have an elite player or an elite prospect (with respect to summer signing Mike Penders, who it still an unknown quantity), and that’s in goal.

“There is nothing beyond infrequent flashes within that sizeable body of evidence to suggest a world-class breakthrough is in his future,” Twomey writes of Robert Sanchez.

“To fully realise his vision of football, Maresca needs a unicorn of a ’keeper, like an Alisson or Ederson, who combines spectacular fundamentals with the technical polish and temperament of an outfield player.”

There’s no doubt Maresca would like that, and it would be the single biggest instant upgrade this team can make as they wait for their talents to improve. The question is who – finding a unicorn is easier said than done.