Chelsea transfer news as Maurico Pochettino remains set to take over at the Blues with the Argentine former Tottenham boss set to inherit a packed underperforming squad.
Chelsea have a squad laden with talent which makes this season’s struggles all the more hard to fathom.
Much has been made of the club’s spending in the transfer market since the Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital ownership group bought the club from Roman Abramovich last summer. Big-money buys such as Mykhailo Mudryk and Raheem Sterling have struggled to make an impression at Stamford Bridge while Joao Felix, signed on loan from Atletico Madrid in January, has also lacked an impact.
Yet as Mauricio Pochettino prepares to take over from Frank Lampard at the end of the season, the Argentine will likely be relying on the club’s more established players to make waves. According to the CIES Football Observatory it is Chelsea’s old guard – relatively speaking – who are worth the most to the club.
The CIES estimates the club’s total squad value to be around $1billion (£793million), with Kai Havertz, Enzo Fernandez, Reece James and Mason Mount worth around $88million each (£69.8million). Raheem Sterling and Joao Felix are valued at $65million (£51.5million) while Benoit Badiashile, Christian Pulisic, Trevoh Chalobah, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovacic, Wesley Fofana and Mudryk have a transfer value of between $44million and $33million (£34.9million and £26.2million).
While loan players are counted, top talent out on loan is not and for Chelsea that includes Romelu Lukaku, purchased for a then club-record fee north of $100million (£79.3million). Boehly and Clearlake paid a lot for Chelsea, $5.4billion (£4.25billion) to be exact, but as well as a prime location for a football club, access to endless Premier League revenues and the chance to expand the club’s commercial revenues they inherited a playing squad worth a huge amount before the summer and January additions.
Now Pochettino stands to inherit a squad that is worth north of $1billion (£793million) – but that is underperforming. That will be the former Tottenham Hotspur boss’ biggest challenge if he takes over at Chelsea because there’s a big squad to keep happy, fit and engaged.
Thankfully, there is a summer around the corner to do just that.
source: football.london
