This summer will be an unusual one for a small portion of clubs around the world. The revamped FIFA Club World Cup takes place in June and for those fortunate enough to get to the final, it will end around a month after it kicked off.
While Chelsea will be ending their season in the United States, where they will play once in Atlanta and two games in Philadelphia during the group stage, the Blues will also be looking ahead to the 2025/26 campaign. For the two co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley, it will be a crucial summer period as they once again look to change the squad, this time for Enzo Maresca's second full season at Stamford Bridge.
Last summer saw 12 new faces in SW6 with more than £200million spent on reinforcements for Maresca as he started his reign in the dugout with Chelsea. The season has included plenty of positives for the Italian but there have also been some points that will have influenced the head coach's thinking when it comes to the upcoming transfer window. While the co-sporting directors are in charge of transfer-related business at the club, Maresca does also have a say on the final decision.
During the campaign, there have been some specific areas of the squad that have been stretched because of a lack of personnel, or have been tested because of unfortunate injury problems. The centre of midfield comes to mind when talking about the former. Chelsea started the season with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Cesare Casadei and Carney Chukwuemeka as the players that are deemed as natural central midfielders.
That seems a lot, doesn't it? But in reality, it seemed Maresca only really trusted three of them in Caicedo, Fernandez and Lavia. Dewsbury-Hall has made one start in the Premier League since signing for £30million last summer and has accumulated just under 200 minutes of top-flight football for the Blues. Casadei and Chukwuemeka were used sometimes in the Conference League but neither were trusted in the Premier League. In January, Casadei was sold to Torino and Chukwuemeka was loaned to Borussia Dortmund, who have an option to buy the 21-year-old midfielder at the end of the season.
So this problem left Chelsea looking in the market to buy a new midfielder, particularly given Lavia's struggles with injuries since joining the club in 2023. The Blues ended up splashing £18.5million on Sporting CP midfielder Dario Essugo, who will move to Stamford Bridge in the summer. football.london understands the 20-year-old should be a Chelsea player well in time for this summer's Club World Cup, where Blues fans will get their first glimpse of the Portuguese midfielder in the famous shirt.
Chelsea also used their time negotiating with Sporting to sanction a deal to sign highly-rated teenager Geovany Quenda. The 17-year-old winger, who will move to Stamford Bridge in 2026, was a big target for Manchester United with Ruben Amorim wanting to reunite with the Portugal international. Chelsea, though, won the race to sign Quenda with assurances over a spot on the wing, football.london understands, while Amorim prefers to play a system with wing-backs at Old Trafford.
So, with the summer transfer window just under three months from opening officially in England, the Blues have started their business early. These moves have caused division among the fan base. Some feel as if the club's model of buying young talent is not really working, while others believe these are smart deals as long as other more experienced players are bought alongside the Sporting duo.
Either way, Chelsea are getting ahead of the game, ahead of their competitors because the summer is going to be unusual with the Club World Cup going on. Senior officials at the club are getting geared up for what is set to be a crucial 2025/26 campaign.
Nonetheless, Chelsea absolutely have to sign a striker this summer. And, ironically, they cannot afford to miss when it comes to this particular signing. Many feel as if a top-class centre-forward can really take this group of youngsters to the next level, to once again compete among the best. That is why it is not a surprise that bringing in a new No.9 is the priority for the west Londoners in the upcoming summer transfer window.