Chelsea took their summer spending beyond the £100 million mark after bringing in David Luiz and Marcos Alonso on transfer deadline day. The duo cost a combined £53 million while earlier signings like Michy Batshuayi and N’Golo Kante worked towards strengthening a squad that finished in a miserable 10th place last season. Manager Antonio Conte targeted several players over the last three months, but he repeatedly faced a disappointment due to exorbitant prices. This even forced the manager to brand the current transfer window as being ‘crazy.’
Without a shadow of a doubt, the prices the English clubs – with the world record signing of Paul Pogba by Manchester United – have been forced to pay are a direct result of the new television deal that will see clubs receiving a 40% boost to their earlier TV money. However, Chelsea should have brought in these three players instead of some of the signings.
James Rodriguez
The Colombian is clearly unsettled at Real Madrid and he is not a member of the starting line-up under Zinedine Zidane. Madrid were extremely worried at the prospect of having Rodriguez in the squad for another six months. This was one of the world’s most expensive players sitting on the bench and is receiving a lot of wages; it could be extremely damaging to the team morale. Yet, the team was unable to find a buyer largely because they did not drop their asking price. An extremely skilful player, Rodriguez would have been the perfect number 10 for Chelsea.
Romelu Lukaku
Chelsea have shown that they have no problem in admitting a mistake by resigning a player. The club has brought in the likes of the Nemanja Matic and David Luiz a couple of years after selling them. The blues were heavily interested in bringing back Lukaku, but Everton would not budge on their asking price of £80 million for the striker. Chelsea reportedly went as far as spending £60 million on him, but could they have gone that extra mile for the player?
Mattia De Sciglio
The AC Milan defender was a regular for Italy at the Euro 2016. Furthermore, Conte knows him extremely well after having coached him at this tournament. He would have been a much better purchase than Marcos Alonso, who is yet to feature for the Spanish national team. De Sciglio is a full-back who can play on the left or right and is extremely versatile.