Boehly struck gold on Chelsea’s “genius”

Chelsea have invested heavily in their squad over the years, even more so in the last couple of seasons, since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took charge at Chelsea, looking to catapult them back to the top with a new recruitment policy.

Their top two record signings are both midfielders that cost around the £100m mark, with Enzo Fernández and Moises Caicedo both joining Chelsea in 2023, the former joining in the January window and the latter joining in the following summer window.

Five of their top ten most expensive signings have come under their new ownership, who took charge of the club in May 2022. However, some of their best signings don’t even come close to this list, with two players in particular proving far better value for money.

N’Golo Kante & Eden Hazard’s record at Chelsea

Firstly, N’Golo Kante was signed by Chelsea in the 2016 summer transfer window, joining the Blues from Leicester City for a fee of around £32m.

This makes the Frenchman their 35th most expensive signing, according to Transfermarkt, with the midfielder making 269 appearances for the club, scoring 13 goals, providing 16 assists and totalling 20,742 minutes played.

The second player is, of course, Eden Hazard, who joined Chelsea from French outfit LOSC Lille in 2012, for a fee of around £32m.

This has the Belgian ranking as the Blues’ 38th most expensive transfer in their history, with the forward making 352 appearances for the club, scoring 110 goals, providing 85 assists and totalling 26,967 minutes played.

Both Kante and Hazard have gone down as Chelsea legends, winning multiple major trophies and contributing largely to their success over the years.

But Boehly and Clearlake have already found their Hazard-Kante level signing, with their 2023 summer transfer bargain.

Chelsea’s best signing since Hazard and Kante

In the 2023/24 summer transfer window, Chelsea signed Manchester City’s Cole Palmer, joining the Blues for a fee of around £40m plus £2.5m in add-ons.

Since his arrival, Palmer has been something of a revelation, scoring 39 goals and providing 21 assists in 78 appearances so far.

When comparing Palmer’s underlying numbers from last season to this season, you can see he has slightly regressed in many metrics.

However, this comes from a poor run of form in recent weeks, something we hadn’t yet seen from the attacking midfielder, which suggests he will bounce back and return to the norm very soon.

Despite his poor form as of late, Palmer is still joint second in the Premier League for chances created from open play, creating 56 so far this season, behind only Mohamed Salah of Liverpool with 67.

Chelsea legend Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink labelled Palmer as “world-class” stating the 22-year-old only has “one weakness”. The one weakness Hasselbaink named was his ability to head the ball, going on to say “he is exceptional”.

Whilst things have slowed down for Palmer – who Joe Cole also branded an “absolute genius” – in the second half of this season, many will expect the star to bounce back with a strong run at the back end of the campaign, as Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea challenge for Champions League qualification.

Related

James upgrade: Chelsea working to sign “the best RB in the Premier League”

Chelsea are reportedly working to sign a player who would be an upgrade on Reece James.