Breaking News: Cole Palmer leaves, Jonathan David deal fails: Chelsea’s dreadful transfer window

As Chelsea continues to hit the transfer window hard, Mirror Football examines what the worst summer transfer window for Chelsea would look like.

Chelsea has had a fairly hectic transfer window this summer.

The Blues began by adding six new players: Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Omari Kellyman, Renato Veiga, Caleb Wiley, Marc Guiu, and Tosin Adarabioyo. Aside from Dewsbury-Hall and Adarabioyo, these players are likely to join the Blues’ minor teams or possibly Ligue 1 club Strasbourg, which the Blues’ owners added to their multi-club structure in 2023.

While they have not spent as lavishly as in recent seasons, the Blues have nevertheless spent about £100 million on new signings. However, the transfer window is still open, and there is still time to add additional players.

That also means there is plenty of room for some key Blues players to depart. Mirror Sport examines the worst-case scenario for Enzo Maresca’s team at the end of the summer transfer season.

Palmer leaves.

Come out from behind the sofa, Chelsea fans. This is currently not expected to happen. Last year, several football fans were perplexed when the west Londoners paid a record £42.5 million to sign the now-England star from Manchester City. Despite this, the winger was a standout in the Premier League last season, scoring 22 goals and assisting 11 times in 33 games.

While the Blues have plenty of attacking talent, losing Palmer would be terrible for Maresca’s team. At the moment, no club has been associated with the 22-year-old, who also has a contract that goes until 2030.

It would take something incredible for the Blues to consider making an offer for Palmer, who scored the equaliser in England’s Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain. If he leaves Stamford Bridge, it would be one of Chelsea’s biggest losses since Eden Hazard’s move to Real Madrid in 2019.

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Jonathan David deal falls.
After two years of aggressively overpaying for players, Chelsea now has a rare opportunity to make a bargain purchase. Last season, Nicolas Jackson was inconsistent, and Christopher Nkunku was plagued by injuries, thus the Blues lacked a reliable goalscoring presence up front.

Few players in Europe’s top leagues performed better last season than David, who scored 26 goals and assisted nine times in 47 games for Lille. Best of all, the 24-year-old Canadian, who scored twice in his country’s journey to the Copa America semi-final, is expected to be available for between £17 million and £20 million.

Chelsea are not the only team interested in the forward; Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, West Ham, and Manchester United have all been connected with him. Maresca’s team will be kicking themselves if they are unable to deliver the clinical forward to Stamford Bridge. They may need to act quickly to avoid disappointment, and now that the Copa America has concluded, David will be ready to plan his futur

Chelsea has had four managers since Romelu Lukaku’s last competitive game for the club. The club has been unable to transfer the forward for whom it paid Inter Milan £97.5 million in the summer of 2021.

Recently, it appeared that he may be moving to Napoli to reconnect with Antonio Conte. Lukaku has made it quite obvious that he does not want to stay at Chelsea, but the club has been unable to unload him due to his reported £325,000-per-week salary.

If this proves too much for Napoli, and Chelsea is unable to reach an arrangement or find him a new club before the transfer window closes, Lukaku will continue to burn a hole in the Blues’ wage structure.

Maresca left with a large squad.
Graham Potter was eventually defeated by overcrowding, and if Chelsea is unable to sell or loan out enough players, Maresca may suffer the same fate. Ironically, Mauricio Pochettino was left with few options last season due to an unprecedented injury problem at the Bridge. Nonetheless, Pochettino was left with a vast group that he battled to keep satisfied.

Maresca is currently in charge of a huge squad in west London. He has six choices in centre defence, all of whom should start games, and he faces similar issues in central midfield, where he has nine players vying for three spots.

During Potter’s reign, it was reported that Mykhailo Mudryk had to change in the corridor because the changing room was too small. The Blues cannot afford to let history repeat itself if they are to improve on their sixth-place finish last season.