Chelsea fans might not hold their breath, but there is certainly hope that a page has been turned at Stamford Bridge after several turbulent years, with Xabi Alonso only a few weeks away from getting started as the new club's new manager.
It would be fair to say that Chelsea have not enjoyed their finest season in the Premier League, finishing tenth and sacking a succession of coaches in 2026: Enzo Maresca and then Liam Rosenior.
Alonso is arguably cut from finer cloth, formerly one of the best midfielders in the world and now accomplished as a coach, completing an invincible domestic double with Bayer Leverkusen in 2023/24.
Chelsea Permanent Managers under Boehly
Manager
Liam Rosenior
Enzo Maresca
Mauricio Pochettino
Graham Potter
We need to see drastic improvements. Cole Palmer needs to return to the kind of form that led Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher to call him "the best player in the Premier League", and Alonso needs more oomph in attack.
Luckily, Chelsea have a plan.
Chelsea in talks to sign world-class winger
There is certainly a sense that Chelsea have rebooted the system with Alonso in charge. BlueCo's desire to sign a centre-forward has remained at the forefront of their plans, but now they are looking to sign players who will dovetail into the Spaniard's system.
Palmer hasn't been at the races of late, but neither has Chelsea's wider attacking system, and that needs to change sharpish, with Alonso's ball-playing system demanding swift passing patterns and wingers who can inject pace and width onto the pitch.
With that in mind, Chelsea may need to sign an elite winger this summer, and Todd Boehly and company have already earmarked a target who could become their best since Eden Hazard.
According to TEAMtalk, Chelsea have held talks with the representatives of Paris Saint-Germain star Bradley Barcola, with chants for his name getting louder and louder across Europe.
PSG winger Bradley Barcola
Barcola, 23, is at something of a contractual impasse in the French capital, but his affluent employers are still set to demand a jaw-dropping fee for his signature, to the tune of around £87m.
Why Barcola can be Chelsea's best winger since Hazard
Over the past few years in Paris, Barcola has proved that he is "one of the best left wingers in Europe", in the words of analyst Ben Mattinson. The France star is endowed with frightening pace and startling agility, so tricky when weaving his way into the danger area.
He is unique, and laden with silverware after several years in France with PSG. Could we be looking at the Blues' finest winger since Hazard, should he sign?
Across all competitions since the start of the 2024/25 season, Barcola has scored 34 goals and supplied 28 assists for his teammates. There is a reason he is regarded as a "superstar", as said by one Liverpool writer.
Fluent across a range of attacking roles, Barcola is unquestionably one of the most talented forwards in the world, someone who can change a game in an instant and leave those around him speechless, both teammates and opponents.
Bradley Barcola's Career by Position
Position
Left winger
Right winger
Centre-forward
He's not Hazard - but he does have the potential to develop into one of Chelsea's finest modern wingers. The retired Belgian was, of course, capable of wizardry on the Stamford Bridge grass. His dribbling, at times, enrtered the same galaxy as Lionel Messi, still light-years away, but closer than the rest of football's elite attacking crop.
Sky Sports analyst Pythagoras in Boots once described Hazard as a "generational" attacking talent who boasts the quality to throw down with any of England's greatest-ever forwards. He's certainly among Chelsea's finest players in history.
eden-hazard-chelsea-2013-2014
Chelsea have not seen anyone like him since - and that's not surprising. Still, if they sign Barcola this summer, they might just land the superstar signing needed to propel the Alonso era toward illustrious heights.
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