London Calling is weekly column covering football in the English capital
We’ve been here before, haven’t we?
Rumors swirl around transfer targets, all of whom have price tags that a manager claims are “overpriced,” citing that the market “has gone crazy.”
This time it’s a Chelsea manager’s turn to lament it.
Between Manchester United breaking the world record transfer fee with an £89 million acquisition of Paul Pogba, and Juventus — the Old Lady of Turin — shelling out £76 million on Gonzalo Higuain, Chelsea has spent moderately in comparison.
The additions of Michy Batshuayi and N’golo Kante set the Blues back around £60 million and while Antonio Conte wants to add to his squad, he doesn’t want to pay a premium.
“I talk every day with the club,” said Conte, who oversaw a 3-0 victory over Burnley Saturday afternoon. “We have a plan but we know the transfer market is very crazy. We must be patient to find the right solution.”
Patience is a virtue that not all people have when it comes to the world of professional soccer, but Antonio Conte seems to have it. “We have to be patient to find the right solutions,” explained the Chelsea boss “It’s important to keep talking with the club to improve the squad. But I am happy to work with the players we have. They are showing great commitment.”
Patience, however, is not always a virtue that is much celebrated in professional soccer — no matter how rare it might be. Patience can get you into a lot of trouble but it can also save you a lot of money, that’s the balancing act — not many coaches do it well.
Arsene Wenger is someone whom is very “patient” with the transfer market, but it’s with varied results. Wenger undoubtedly has an eye for talent at cut-price deals, but these players aren’t usually good enough to propel Arsenal back to the glory they enjoyed in the early days of the French visionary’s tenure. Arsenal fans are now frustrated in every window hearing about the “Galactico” players they could have had, but miss out on because Wenger/the club was unwilling to meet the other club’s demands.
Even “the Special One” himself gets it wrong sometimes, too.
After winning the Premier League in the 2014/15 season Jose Mourinho insisted that he “did not need to buy 10 players” to improve Chelsea’s squad. Mourinho brought in Barcelona’s Pedro, relative unknown left fullback Abdul Baba Rahman, Asmir Begovic, Brazilian youngster Kenedy, Manchester United flop Radamel Falcao, and someone called Papy Djilobodji to the first team. No marquee signings, and nobody who would slot right into the first team — barring Pedro.
Chelsea sacked Mourinho in December after losing nine of their sixteen games played, laying 16th in the table.
You don’t need to buy to improve? History says… perhaps you do. You can bet that Jose Mourinho wont make that mistake again.
Antonio Conte is walking a very fine line when it comes to being able to sustain the Blues’ good start to the season. Of course the new manager has galvanized a group of players that Mourinho ran into the ground mentally — the performances of Eden Hazard and Nemanja Matic are proof of that — but this is essentially the same Chelsea team that finished 10th in the Premier League last season and with everyone around Chelsea improving far more drastically, is last season good enough?
The “market” is inflated no doubt, but lamenting it when you have almost unlimited funds is rather poor form. Pep Guardiola and Manchester City went out and got who they wanted, so did Mourinho and Manchester United, why not Chelsea and Antonio Conte?
Chelsea and Conte lie just two days away from the end of the summer transfer window and it doesn’t look like any signings are on the horizon. Chelsea’s Italian boss keeps saying that “sometimes you need to solve problems with hard work,” which screams “we have no more ideas,” and that “we must understand, now, in England every team has money,” which sounds more like “we got beaten to players because the transfer policy isn’t working.”
Chelsea fans have grown very frustrated over the last couple of seasons. This seasons’ lack of activity coupled with last seasons underwhelming activity have left many fans questioning whether the Blues’ board match the ambitions of the manager in charge.
Chelsea’s biggest need is most certainly in defense but addressing it has been like pulling teeth for the south-west London side. Last season missing out on John Stones, this season in a frustrating pursuit of Napoli centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly which is going nowhere; the “will they, wont they” over Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez and now? Rumors of loaning out Kurt Zouma to Schalke swirl — try and make sense of that one.
If Conte really wants to take charge of this Chelsea team he needs to get the board’s backing to spend money, and he needs to get it soon.
