Evolution of Chelsea's Transfer Windows

At a point in 2017, it was looking bleak for Chelsea in terms of transfers and i genuinely thought it was the direction we will take in the future. However that has changed a lot now. Let's have a look at our past to know why.

2014/15 was a fairly decent window with the arrival of Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis. However in the same year we let go of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne in the previous year. Who were the replacements? Mario Pasalic, Loic Remy and Juan Cuadrado

Lukaku came through the Chelsea ranks and Kevin De Bruyne was the result of some brilliant scouting. The end result? Mourinho failing to use either player and both players sold for peanuts and replaced with more short term fixes. Result? Wasted time for both parties.

15/16 in my memory was the worst of the lot. Abdul Rahman Baba, Papy Djilobodji, Nathan, Danilo Pantic, Falcao, Kennedy, Matt Miazga, Alexandre Pato and others. Who went out? Thorgan Hazarad and Mohammed Salah. The names mentioned above have not mustered 20 starts together.

15/16 is the best example of how deadwood and wasted wages almost brought the club to ruin. Operating losses and wages wasted on players on the bench, all for the goal of short term fixes. We were lucky enough to have good quality first team players back then to see it through.

Incomes 16/17 and the arrival of Antonio Conte. A good window with the arrival of Kante, David Luis, Marcos Alonso and Batshuayi. It looked like Antonio Conte was the end to our short term fix solutions as we won the league. Some of our surplus players were slowly shipped out

However, 17/18 changed all of it. Conte's reluctance to work with the board and large gaps of communication between the hierarchy meant that it was a transfer window to forget. Morata, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Emerson, Barkley, Zappacosta were some of the players signed.

Massive wages, squad fillers, tactically inflexible players and second options meant that transfer fee and wages were simply being thrown around to appease a manager rambling in public and kicking out the best striker the club had in years. This was one of the worst windows.

Arrival of Sarri saw a shift in the transfers which saw him recruit Jorginho, Kepa, Kovacic and Higuain to play his brand of football. Christian Pulisic's arrival in the winter was a blessing in disguise back then even with all the doubts surrounding his ability. A good window.

What looked like a long term project was short lived after the Europa league victory once Sarri left for Juventus. Sarri was the first of many managers to give opportunities to two Chelsea academy players. A change in direction perhaps? But very short lived.

Frank Lampard's arrival saw a massive shift. Academy players brought into the first team and a surge of transfers of very high quality players. The transfer ban was truly needed to stop Chelsea from recruiting squad fillers who simply caused more harm than good financially.

Chelsea's current window is the best in its last 6 years. The best since 2004 no doubt.

Hakim Ziyech
Timo Werner
Kai Havertz
Thiago Silva
Malang Saar

Names which normally wouldn't have come to Chelsea if this was 3 years back. No squad fillers. No second best options.

The quality of Chelsea's academy graduates has come to light. Thank god the club decided to take a look at Cobham. Millions of Euros you normally spend of squad fillers and wages for bench saved every week. I cannot highlight the importance of this change anymore than this.

Its taken a couple of years but I am glad the club has seen the light. Whats left now is for the club to continue this practice in the long run. A 19/20 window should not be followed up with a window similar to 15/16, that would mean all this hard work goes back to square one.

The club are clearly looking at this window as the long term project and with quality additions every year and players integrated from the academy, the club will be a force to reckon with in the years to come. Thank you for reading Likes/Retweets appreciated