Chelsea have committed over £200million in transfers on players who are yet to make an appearance for the club. It comes as a small part of the overall £1.5billion-plus outlay under Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly.
Only this week football.london has learned that deals worth a combined £59million have been agreed for Sporting CP pair Dario Essugo and Geovany Quenda. The latter will not join Chelsea until summer 2026.
Essugo will meet up and be assessed later this year alongside a group of talented others. The picture is still a remarkable one with priorities in the market being questioned by those who watch Chelsea and see holes in goal and up front.
After the Club World Cup - or perhaps even before it, if Chelsea have their way with certain arrangements - the club are expected to take a look at five players at least who have already been signed. The quirk is that none of them have featured once in competitive matches.
Due to their age and changed FIFA rules it was not possible to welcome Kendry Paez or Estevao Willian in officially until their 18th birthday. Mike Penders is 19 already but has been allowed to complete the season with Genk in Belgium for his development.
That is the same reason that Quenda will remain in Portugal with Sporting despite being allowed to move to England. Andrey Santos has already spent time at Chelsea on two pre-season tours but has been on three separate loans since January 2023.
He will return later this year as one of the brightest young midfield prospects in the world after shining at RC Strasbourg for over 12 months. He will partner up and compete with Essugo for a spot in the first-team.
Essugo is currently away at Las Palmas in Spain but will leave Sporting permanently once the season finishes. These are the players deemed ready, although Penders is likely to be sent out in order to continue gaining experience. He already has three goalkeepers ahead of him in the pecking order. It is clear that none of them are in a strong position long-term, though.
Chelsea could end up paying £104million for these five if all add-ons are met. Almost half of that comes from Estevao, the prized jewel in this youth recruitment drive, who warrants £30million up front with the rest in potential bonuses.
Quenda so far boasts the largest single fee at £41million, but it is understood that there will not be any increase to that over time. Penders was a big outlay at £17million for a teenager goalkeeper only just taking his first steps in the men's game, whilst Santos (£10million) was low-risk and high-reward for a standout Brazilian youth international.
Paez is a much more raw deal that is similar to Santos. He cost £8million from Independiente del Valle in his home country, Ecuador. Essugo will set Chelsea back £18million.
This is the core of a promising young team which Chelsea hope can flourish in the coming years, building towards Project 2030. The others are further behind.
Estevao Willian of Palmeiras celebrates
Chelsea forward Estevao Willian has been on fire during his loan spell at Palmeiras
Denner Evangelista is yet to be announced but is reportedly set to join when he turns 18. He will cost an initial £8million with another £3million possible in add-ons. The left-back currently plays for Corinthians but is yet to make a senior appearance.
Aaron Anselmino is a more well-known name having been recalled from his loan at Boca Juniors. The Argentine, 19, was signed last summer for £15million before being sent back to his boyhood club.
Chelsea took the decision to bring him back in January with centre-back problems emerging. Trevoh Chalobah's own return has seen Anselmino left to play academy football after making the bench in both matches away at Brighton in February. He is now injured.
Anselmino was being considered for a move away to Marseille in January. He would have competing against Mamadou Sarr, who is currently at Blue-owned RC Strasbourg in defence and will join Chelsea later this year after a £15million transfer was completed.
He is another who is likely to need time to improve away from Stamford Bridge. The same is true of Caleb Wiley, who has been with Strasbourg himself this season before moving to Watford over the winter.
Wiley was picked up for £8million from Atlanta United last year but has been hit with injury issues. He faces an uphill battle already to get close to the Chelsea XI.
The other figure is the youngest of them all: 16-year-old Dastan Satpaev. Much like Marc Guiu's cheap £5million move from Barcelona, Chelsea spent only £4million on the Kazakhastan youth prospect in January. He has broken into the Kairat Almaty senior squad despite his age and scored his first goal earlier this month.
Satpaev is another of the low-risk deals Chelsea have gone after. He brings the total spend on a starting XI of players Chelsea have/will sign but are yet to play for the club to £195million. Include Gabriel Slonina, another goalkeeper, and that is up to £202million.
The USA shot-stopper was one of the first to be purchased under Clearlake-Boehly in the summer of 2022. He came in with rave reviews as a teenage No.1 in MLS but has stalled since.
Slonina, 20, spent last season on loan in Belgium at KAS Eupen before heading to Barnsley for this year. That was cancelled in January after a finger injury ruled him out for more than two months. Slonina only cost £7million but is now behind Penders.
Away from this XI, Chelsea also spent £5million combined to bring in Jimmy-Jay Morgan and Ishe Samuels-Smith at academy level. Neither have played a senior game but Samuels-Smith has been named as a substitute.
The average age of the players listed (Penders, Denner, Anselmino, Sarr, Wiley, Quenda, Santos, Essugo, Estevao, Paez, Satpaev, Slonina, Morgan, and Samuels-Smith) is 18.4. In most positions that is still 10 years out from when peak performance is expected.
Chelsea may well have nailed their colours to the mast of this revolution but the success or failure of most of these players will not be clear for years to come. In the mean time, the spending only adds pressure and scrutiny to the business being carried out on Enzo Maresca's first-team.
Separating the Chelsea of now from the Chelsea plans for the future creates two very different images. One is an exciting but unproven group of talented players founded on potential. The other is of an expensively assembled cast of only slightly older players trying to learn on the job in Premier League football.
One day some of the XI from above might join those who have gone before them. That is certainly what Chelsea will hope for because otherwise it is a lot of money on players who still have so many formative years ahead of them with nothing being guaranteed.
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Chelsea flag prior the UEFA Champions League Quarter Final Leg One match between Chelsea FC and Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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