Journalist Dean Jones has criticised Chelsea’s scattergun transfer policy, with the club thought to be looking at a variety of players across a wide age range.
Jones was speaking about the Blues’ potential January transfer activity on the Chasing Green Arrows podcast.
The 2022/23 campaign has been very disappointing for the Blues so far. They sacked manager Thomas Tuchel in early September, and replacement Graham Potter has overseen a run of five Premier League games without a win heading into the World Cup break.
Owner Todd Boehly is reported to be on hand to assist when it comes to January recruitment, but Jones has claimed that it appears it is unclear what types of players they want to bring in.
He said: “I’m sure Chelsea will sign one or two.
“But at the moment, I’m not sure what kind of players they’re even looking at. They’re all over the place with their strategy – some of them are 18-year-olds, some of them are 23 and some of them are 27. There’s all sorts of tiers of players that they’re looking at.
“In two or three years, it looks great at Chelsea, but for this season, it seems a little bit all over the place.”
TIF Thoughts on Jones’ Chelsea comments…
We believe that the Blues will need have a clearer idea of what kind of players they want to sign. January could be a great opportunity to give the squad a needed boost.
Behind the scenes, it does seem Boehly is looking to address this issue. A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Chelsea were planning to raid Brighton & Hove Albion’s backroom staff in order to improve their recruitment team.
If that’s to be the case, it could signal that the club are making efforts to form an identity in terms of the transfer strategy, and the Seagulls brought in some very talented players in recent years.
Leandro Trossard is an example of their eye for talent. He cost Brighton £15m – a fee we would consider as doing great business given his record on the south coast, with the Belgian enjoying what is set to be his best goalscoring campaign in English football to date.
January is an important time for many clubs to strengthen, and if Chelsea can spend intelligently, it could be a massive turning point in their season.