Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images
Following Chelsea’s humiliating 3-0 defeat to Brentford on Friday, some supporters have been very reactionary.
All of a sudden, Xabi Alonso is a terrible manager, while the club had a very poor summer transfer window. Both are reactionary statements, but that is what is floating around on social media.
Being balanced, Chelsea did some good business in the transfer market. But there is no denying that one deal has had serious ramifications.
Chelsea not signing a replacement for Enzo Fernandez is unforgivable
Off the pitch, Chelsea selling Enzo Fernandez to Manchester City was a great deal for the Blues. They sold the midfielder for a whopping £125m fee and even managed to make a profit. However, on the football side of things, it has been a disastrous bit of business.
Fernandez was a controversial figure at Chelsea, but he is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. It is why Enzo Maresca wanted to work with him again and why City were prepared to equal the British transfer record fee to secure his signature.
Instead of replacing Fernandez with a player of his calibre, Chelsea have decided to put their trust in playing two right-backs, Malo Gusto and Reece James, in midfield, as well as a 36-year-old Jordan Henderson. Madness.
Chelsea have five sporting directors, including Dave Fallows. It is absurd that such a sporting structure could not come to the conclusion that replacing a £125m midfielder needed to be a priority.
They will argue that they tried everything they could to sign Alex Scott from Bournemouth. Chelsea almost completed the signing of Lamine Camara as well, but that deal collapsed. However, that is not an excuse. It should not have taken them that long to line up a replacement for Fernandez when it was known that there was a strong possibility that he would be leaving Stamford Bridge.
Selling Fernandez was arguably a mistake in itself. Not replacing him was an even bigger one. Alonso is now paying the price, especially with Reece James picking up yet another injury.
Having Fernandez, Scott or Camara may not have made much of a difference to Friday night’s scoreline. But you can be certain that they could not have done any worse than Henderson and Valentin Barco.