It’s been a crazy couple of days for the Chelsea team and their fan base. From injury pile ups to a highly competitive game against Liverpool where there were some standout performances from midfield stars Ngolo Kante and Mateo Kovacic. And even more COVID cases and fixture congestion didn’t aid the Blues’ cause for dominance. But all the aforementioned events have been massively overshadowed by an interview that star man, and 98million pound signing Romelu Lukaku had with Sky Italia earlier on in December. An interview in which he spoke of his love for former club Inter Milan, and in the process threw shade (whether intended or not) at current club Chelsea. This has obviously caused an eruption amongst the club and more so the fans who for the most part have provided very negative reactions to the situation. Some fans feel there is no way back into the squad for the striker while other feel that the apology given via the Chelsea website will suffice.
All this drama has taken away from one of the events that I find most enjoyable in the footballing world, the transfer window. A time where speculation over players futures is up in the air and the prospect of your favourite team signing a star player to strengthen their squad and push them forward fills fans with excitement.
With this being said, I’m going to be looking at 5 potential attacking players that the Blues could sign to help Thomas Tuchel achieve more silverware this year. As for why I believe Chelsea should be lookin to sign an attacker is apparent when watching the games. Of course first and foremost the Blues should be looking to enforce the wingback position to cover for injured Reece James and Ben Chilwell. But the West London sides attack has greatly been hampered this season by the lack of a winger/ attacking midfielder that has the ability to both create and score goals. Star youngster Mason Mount has contributed to 12 goals in 18 appearances this season in the league, scoring 7 and assisting a further five, which is very impressive. But, the players that have paired with him on the other wing throughout the season so far have been truly underwhelming. I am now going to list off some of their numbers in comparison to other attackers in the league.
- Christian Pulisic – 11 apearences, 3 goals, 0 assists
- Kai Havertz- 15 appearances, 2 goals, 1 assist
- Hakim Ziyech- 10 appearances, 1 goal, 2 assists
- Bukayo Saka- 20 appearances, 6 goals, 4 assists
- Son Heung-Min- 17 appearances, 8 goals, 3 assists
- Raheem Sterling- 17 appearances, 7 goals, 1 assist
- Raphinha- 17 appearances, 8 goals, 1 assist
- Emile Smith Rowe- 18 appearances, 8 goals, 2 assists
- Saïd Benrahma- 20 appearances, 5 goals, 4 assists
- Riyad Mahrez- 16 appearances, 6 goals, 4 assists
From the small list alone you can see that a lot of our players, who were brought in as expensive, high profile signings have been underperforming statistically coming in to the second half of the seasons. Where as other players have excelled for rival sides. Some of those players are not even considered number one players in their side. Providing context to the argument that too many cooks don’t necessarily spoil the broth. So with that being said, I have highlighted 5 players who I believe could come into Tuchels side and improve the attack and provide some goals in an area that has been void of goals so far.
Ousmane Dembélé- Barcelona (24 years old)
When fit, and that’s a BIG when, Dembélé is a star with world class potential. The Frenchman burst onto the scene aged 18 with French side Rennes scoring 12 goals and assisting a further 5 in 26 Ligue Un appearances. He then moved on to Borussia Dortmund, where, under current Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel provided 18 goal contributions in just 32 Bundesliga games. The young star only played one season in Germany before being snapped up by Ernesto Valverde’s heavy spending Barcelona side. In his 4 and a half seasons with the Catalan giants, Dembélé has struggled to recapture his form that he had displayed with his two previous club sides. 34 La Liga goal contributions in that time is a disappointing stat considering Barcelona spent a whopping €105 million plus add ons. A lot of the players downfalls have been due to injury. Seemingly spending more time on the medical table than on the pitch in recent years has really cast a shadow over his career as a whole, making Barca fans question whether the youngster will ever truly live up to his world class potential. However, when fit you can see what Ousmane provides to a team. Very fast and incredibly technical on the ball, Dembélé has the versatility to play anywhere across the front three, especially considering his very strong finishing ability. He is also very two footed, once sighting that he is left footed but takes penalties with his right foot. His ability to play using both feet is astounding, having at one point scored 12 goals with his left foot and 18 with his right.
But where does he fit in with Thomas Tuchels system? Well I’d imagine quite well actually… As previously mentioned, when fit Dembélé could start for nearly any team across Europe. Nearly every season he has played in his career he has averaged over 7 on ‘whoscored’, just adding to the fact he is consistently performing when healthy. Arguably his best season in his still budding career was in Germany, playing for a team managed by Thomas Tuchel. Tuchel has spoken very highly of the Frenchman in recent years, even saying ‘Dembélé can do anything in football’. The sentiment has also been mirrored, with Dembélé claiming that Tuchel is his favourite ever manager. If the youngster was to join the Blues he would provide a lot of creativity and would be able to work very well of target man Lukaku and would also be able to provide goals to bridge the gap between Chelsea and their higher scoring rivals. With all of the positives being said we do need to again address his injury history. Roman Abramovic may not want to get the cheque book out for a player who is more injury prone than Christian Pulisic. Chelsea need to bring in a player who can play consistently at a high level, but his problem would be more about playing consistently in general, rather than actually playing well.
Barcelona’s asking price for the still very young Frenchman would be nowhere near the price they had paid for him back in 2017. 30-40 million might even be enough to get the job done considering his contract runs out in the summer. This is a very high risk/ high reward transaction. You can potentially get a future top 10 player in the world or you could be throwing 50 million down the drain for a player who will average 10 games a season. I guess only time will tell how the rest of his (hopefully long and fruitful) career plays out.
Kingsley Coman- Bayern Munich (25 years old)
Kingsley Coman is a star player who would drastically improve this Chelsea side. Like his French compatriot who I have previously mentioned in Dembélé, he stepped onto the stage at an early age and set the world alight. A serial winner with a great mentality, Coman holds the enviable stat that he has won the league title in every season he has been a professional. Then again, it’s not an overly hard thing to do when his club sides have been PSG, Juventus and current club Bayern Munich. Which at the very least, you’d hope he’s picked up a strong winning mentality along the way. Coman, although an outstanding talent in his own right, has been left out of the Bavarian sides starting XI more often than not in the previous 2 seasons due to the resurgence of team mates Leroy Sane and Serge Gnabry. Who are both considered top wingers amongst Europe’s elite.
Even with lack of playing time, his numbers have still been positive. Scoring 4 goals in his 10 Bundesliga appearances this term and contributing to 15 in 29 last season shows he can produce top numbers in creative teams. If he were to join Thomas Tuchels side, he’d offer an added element that the Blues side is currently lacking. A goal scoring winger who can create opportunities for main man Lukaku. Chelsea also lack in one area specifically and that is serious pace out wide. Apart from Timo Werner, Chelsea lack pace in attack and the opportunity to play on the counter attack has been hampered this season due to players not being able to break away. A combination of Mount, Coman and Lukaku with Werner and Havertz thrown in would give opposition defenders sleepless nights before games.
As for the fee it would likely take for Coman to come to the Bridge would be hefty. Rumoured to be anywhere between 50-80 million, he’s definitely an investment. At only 25, the Frenchman could provide 7 years of top tier performances that could help the West London club to more silverware, which is obviously their ultimate goal.
Antony- Ajax (21 years old)
Young Brazilian talents seem to be a dime a dozen in this day and age. Not all of them end up succeeding in living up to the hype though. Ajax appear to have one of these stars in 21 year old Antony. The young winger has set the Dutch league alight since making his debut for the Amsterdam based side in 2020. Combining for 24 goal contributions in his first 46 league games, he has really shown his prowess in front of goal. Not only has he been performing well in a league where the quality of opposition is often put in question but, he has performed very well in Europe’s premier competition, the Champions League. Scoring 2 goals and assisting 4 in only 5 games in the group stages and also performing to a 7.93 rating on ‘whoscored’, he has shown he can compete amongst the elites.
The areas in which Antony excels, he really excels. Again a very fast player with magical boots, he would offer Thomas Tuchels side something that they have greatly missed in the past few seasons. That is the ability to shoot from outside the box. Players (outside of Rudiger…) in this current system almost seem afraid to shoot from distance and prefer to pass the ball into the net, which in certain games, especially against teams who play with a low block, is not the right tactic. The youngster also has a very smooth ball playing motion, Rey accurate with his passes and crosses, which again would very much benefit team mate target man Romelu Lukaku.
As for getting this deal done, I’d argue it’s a long shot for January. A deal in the summer appears to make a lot more sense. Players don’t tend to stay in the Eredivise for long, and when they have the spotlight on them, they often go for a large fee to the first bidder. Previous stars such as Frenkie De Jong and Matthijs De Ligt have recently moved from Ajax for fees in excess of £60 million. I feel Antony will not be quite as expensive, rumoured to be around the £50 million mark. But if this Chelsea side really were to have silverware aspirations this year, they could do a lot worse than bringing in this somewhat unknown commodity to Stamford Bridge this month.
Eden Hazard- Real Madrid (31 years old)
At the time of writing this, it is currently Eden Hazards 31st birthday, and it has really got me reminiscing over the great 7 years he had spent as a part of Chelsea football club. On his day the best player in the league, he was a man who could singlehandedly take a game by the scruff of it neck and drag the Blues to victory. His final year in West London was arguably his greatest season with the team. Scoring 16 goals and providing 15 assists helped drag a struggling Sarri team into a respectable 3rd place and also a dominant Europa League win. He also received a league high 14 man of the match awards in only 32 games which is outstanding. To put it lightly Chelsea fans love Eden Hazard, and his time with the team is looked back on very fondly.
His move to Madrid 2 and a half years ago for a reported fee of up to €150 million has not turned out how either Hazard himself or Madrid would have hoped. Playing only a total of 43 La Liga games out of a possible 96 games due to injury has been a real disappointment. With many of those 43 appearances being small substitute cameo appearances. Also comparably to his last season where he only played 32 league games, in his 43 in Spain, he has only contributed to 10 goals and produced a poultry 2 man of the match awards.
So with this being said, why should the Blues look to bring in a 31 year old injury prone player past his prime? The honest answer is a mixture of nostalgia and the truthful fact that a half fit Eden Hazard is still probably better than what we already have on this team. The fee to bring his back wouldn’t be bankrupting either, with a loan option most likely. It’s far more low risk than some of the other options previously mentioned. If he were to come back and be injured, Chelsea wouldn’t have to live with the fact that they spent over £100 million on the player unlike Real, who would probably just be happy to get his wages off the books, And if he were to be fit and contribute to the team then I’m sure Blues fans everywhere would be overjoyed. All I can say is bring him back Marina, as Nike would say ‘just do it’!
Gonçalo Guedes- Valencia (25 years old)
A player who I’ve been following for a number of years now is Portuguese star Gonçalo Guedes. A versatile attacker who can play on either wing, as a number 9 or even a second striker, he may add a little bit more firepower to the Chelsea offence. Providing 10 goal contributions in 18 La Liga games in a struggling Valencia team, Guedes has shone providing 5 man of the match performances. Similarly to the other players mentioned on this list, the Portuguese star is very fast and runs very well with the ball at his feet. Averaging 2 dribbles a game shows he has the ability to run at players and take on a man, which is something this current Chelsea squad lacks outside of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic who have had varying success when taking on defenders.
Although still fairly young, Guedes has a lot of footballing experience. Having already played 29 games for Portugal, he has been around top players such as Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva, hopefully adding to his winning mentality. Valencia’s win over Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey final in 2019 also shows he is able to contribute to winning teams.
In 2019 Guedes signed a permanent deal with Valencia from PSG for €40 million, so you shouldn’t expect any deal to happen for the player for anything shy of £40 million. Again, similar to previous player suggestions, a deal for Guedes, if it were to happen, would be more likely in the summer. But with Valencia underperforming and not in Europe this season, the players head may be turned when the Champions of Europe come knocking.
Forgotten Footballers 