Chelsea sign shock £60m striker and brand new defender in stunning January transfer window predictionplaceholder image
Chelsea sign shock £60m striker and brand new defender in stunning January transfer window prediction | Getty Images
Who will Chelsea sign before the end of the January transfer window? We asked AI to predict the Blues’ movements before deadline day.
Chelsea are in a curious position in the current transfer window – a team that needs reinforcements to push for a top four finish but which is also having to operate with one eye on UEFA’s financial fair play rules. From the outside, it’s not easy to determine just how busy they might be before the deadline on 2 February.
They appear to be getting closer to a deal for a centre-back, but will that be the beginning and end of the Blues’ January dealings, and will they even get that over the line? To find out, we decided to put a popular AI algorithm to the test and ask it to predict how Chelsea’s squad will change over the next two weeks – with some intriguing results. Does AI have a special insight into the future, or is it just making stuff up as it goes along? Let’s find out…
Chelsea’s £110m January transfer window – according to AI
AI starts by making a pretty safe prediction – that Chelsea will get a deal for Stade Rennais defender Jérémy Jacquet over the line well before the window slams shut.
The 20-year-old centre-back will cost around £50m in the final reckoning, the AI guesses, and it was convinced that Chelsea will add an extra defender in one form or another regardless of the success of that transfer, with Nottingham Forest’s Murillo mentioned as a possible back-up plan should the Jacquet deal fall through for any reason.
All signs suggest that Jacquet will indeed be a Chelsea player before long, but the algorithm had a rather more surprising prediction in its virtual mind as well – that Chelsea would strike a £60m deal for Aston Villa forward Ollie Watkins.
It may be hard to imagine Watkins leaving Villa when they’re also in the mix for a Champions League place and they firmly rejected a similar offer from Arsenal a year ago, but at the same time they have been linked with deals for several forwards including Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta – and perhaps if those come to fruition, then such a move may make rather more sense.
Watkins would, at 29, be rather older than the usual Chelsea signing but with a regular supply of goals arguably necessary to keep the team competitive, the AI reckons that the Blues could take advantage of Villa’s PSR position to force a late-window deal through. A bold prediction, by any standards, but if AI really is the future, then perhaps it will be proven right…
Two players leaving Stamford Bridge in AI January prediction
The wheeling and dealing won’t stop at incomings, according to the AI, with two players apparently set to leave Stamford Bridge in the coming two weeks.
Axel Disasi, who has recently been reintegrated into the first-team squad, is one of them. The AI doesn’t care to guess whether he leaves on a loan or permanent deal, mentioning both as possibilities, but does believe that Italian side AS Roma will beat Wolves and Crystal Palace to the punch in a three-way bidding war.
With the Frenchman on his way out, Chelsea will also apparently finally find a home for unwanted winger Raheem Sterling, now the last member of the infamous ‘bomb squad’ of cast-offs which had accrued during BlueCo’s tenure – and the AI reckons that it will be the permanent deal that the Blues (and likely Sterling) have been praying for.
The England winger will supposedly get his wish to remain in London and sign for Fulham for £15m, with Chelsea propping up the deal by helping out with some of Sterling’s considerable salary. Crystal Palace are mentioned as a “long-shot” alternative, although we note that Fulham have actually been linked with Sterling in real-life reports in a way that Palace haven’t.
Can Chelsea actually afford a transfer window with a net spend of nearly £100m? Will they get their hands on an established centre-forward like Watkins? Or is AI simply not very good at this sort of thing? We’ll find out by 2 February…
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