Yeah they have an impressive batch at the moment that’s why I soften my criticism with genuine praise. They’ve been excellent at producing young players but it has been the rare bunch that actually get to play. That group came through at roughly the same time and were given chances when the club seemed to be in a bit of a problem with a lack of financial backing. Suddenly their spending power is back and now half of them are on the transfer list (or already gone, like Tomori) as they look to spend their way to the title again.
I’ve no problem with their approach, ultimately they will simply end up flooding the market with brilliantly coached, talented players who they couldn’t find a place for because they were chasing a guy two years older from Spain or France with a few additional games for “experience”. It’ll benefit the rest of the league picking up their castoffs - it’s happened (indirectly) before with Salah and De Bruyne - it’ll certainly happen again. If Chelsea are happy with that system then cool, that’s just the system.
Personally I don’t understand buying - or keeping- the likes of Rudiger when you have Tomori coming through. I don’t get buying Ziyech when you have Mount and Hudson-Odoi, I don’t understand signing Malang Sarr when you have Marc Guehi on the books. To me, they’re all similar standards of players but… I don’t have to get it or like it, it’s not my club.
They are having a really nice window after looking like they are at the edge of the abyss with all those players reaching the end of their contracts. Not sure about Vieira’s coaching credentials, though, we’ll see if he can cut it in PL but at least he’s getting some rather nice players.
Sebastian Driussi from Zenit to Austin for £5.7m.
Alphonse Areola from Fulham to West Ham on loan.
Berkan Kutlu from Alanyaspor to Galatasaray for £3.1m.
Troy Parrott from Tottenham to MK Dons on loan.
Jorge Saenz from Valencia to Maritimo on loan.
Beni Baningime from Everton to Hearts on a permanent, 3-year deal.
Viktor Fischer from Copenhagen to Antwerp for £1.3m.
Marc Cardona from Osasuna to Go Ahead Eagles on loan.
Riccardo Marchizza from Sassuolo to Empoli on loan.
Arnor Sigurdsson from CSKA Moscow to Venezia on loan, £700k fee.
Conor Gallagher from Chelsea to Palace on loan.
Giancula Frabotta from Juventus to Hellas Verona on loan.
Kristoffer Klaesson from Valerenga to Leeds for £1.8m.
Matteo Lovato from Hellas Verona to Atalanta for £7.2m.
Anton Stach from Greuter Furth to Mainz for £3.1m.
Luis Advincula from Rayo Vallecano to Boca for £1.8m.
Roman Yaremchuk from Gent to Benfica for £15.3m.
Javi Galan from Huesca to Celta for £3.6m.
Actually I think that Villa is doing some great business to build a decent team ahead. If the Grealish deal goes ahead on 100m, they would have pull off one of the greatest “Scam” job in football history. And it would be great for them on the incomings. They have built a solid defensive quartet and now bringing in players like Buendia, with Bailey almost confirmed and looking to players like Prowse or Cantwell, they could do better than the 11th they did last season. Watkins was pretty solid for them last season too, so I think selling Grealish is probably one of the best things they could have done.
Lassana Coulibaly from Angers to Salernitana on loan.
Luis Abram from Velez Sarsfield to Granada on a free.
Marko Arnautovic from Shanghai to Bologna for £2.7m.
Konstantinos Stafylidis from Hoffenheim to Bochum on loan.
Valentino Livramento from Chelsea to Southampton for £5m. He’s only 19 but could be a regular for Southampton this season if they move Walker-Peters to left back. He was a standout at Chelsea’s academy last couple of seasons.
