Chelsea spend big but Premier League leaders Arsenal win the transfer window - The Warm-Up
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Updated 01/02/2023 at 14:40 GMT
The transfer window is wrapped. And what a window it was. Chelsea went big to take their spending for the season in excess of £500m - but how wise was that? Arsenal capitalised on this to firm up their midfield on transfer deadline day by signing Jorginho, and have now well and truly exited the 'Banter Era'. The day's *biggest* news saw Anthony Richard Pulis retire from management.
'It was a hard time!' – New signing Jorginho recalls playing Arsenal this season
Wednesday’s big stories
Chelsea went big (again)
Chelsea appointed Graham Potter as their new manager on September 6, 2022. His appointment was widely heralded as a bold new long-term approach for a club. Gone were the days of wild spending, and the hire-them-and-fire-them culture that underpinned Roman Abramovich’s ownership of the club.
Over the course of the window, they have signed David Datro Fofana from Molde for £10.6m, Benoit Badiashile from Monaco for £32.76m, Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama for £18m, Mykhaylo Mudryk from Shakhtar Donetsk for £89m, Malo Gusto from Lyon for £26.3m (and loaned him back), Noni Madueke from PSV for an undisclosed fee, Joao Felix from Atletico Madrid on loan, although they paid £11m in an admin fee, and then in the last knockings of the window, agreed a British record deal for Enzo Fernandez.
It does not scream restrained, The Warm-Up can’t lie. That is roughly £290 million added to the £250 million spent last summer should the Fernandez deal be confirmed by both clubs (at the time of writing, there is still just an Argentina flag in the Chelsea Twitter bio). Now, The Warm-Up is about to state the obvious, but spending nearly £550 million on a squad over the course of a season is both punchy and risky.
It is not hyperbole to say that this is a watershed moment in the club's history. A £500 million bet has been made with - with the greatest respect - a rookie manager at the elite level steering the ship. It might prove an unmitigated success, but if it does not, where do the club turn? To a project coach? Well, if they are suddenly looking for a new coach, then they will have just sacked a project coach in Potter, and they can't spend their way out of it either.
Potter is renowned for being a training-ground manager who crafts teams and systems that are greater than the sum of its parts. That, without question, takes time. The outlay this window, coupled with the summer splurge, applies a significant layer of pressure to that process.
Logic dictates that Potter should be afforded time to work with this new, bloated squad, but logic also dictated that Chelsea would slow their spending following his arrival. This season looks increasingly like a write-off with the club sat in 10th, 10 points off the top four. Thus, it represents something of a free hit - an opportunity for Potter to begin to get his ideas across on the training ground and learn about his squad in match situations.
However, should they start sluggishly next season, then, well, the pressure shall be on in a big, big way. Chelsea have backed their manager but they have also applied substantial pressure to him too.
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Chelsea rolled the dice this month
Image credit: Getty Images
Arsenal quietly had themselves a very astute transfer window
The January transfer window is a notoriously tricky one to negotiate. There is little value to be had namely because there are little players of value available.
The fact Arsenal signed neither of their top targets – Mudryk or Moises Caicedo – is illustrative of the complications of the winter window. However, the club undoubtedly finish January a stronger proposition than they started it after signing Leandro Trossard and Jorginho.
It speaks to a well-run club that they were unable to get their No. 1 targets, but had contingencies in place. And, it is The Warm-Up’s view, that said contingencies arguably put the club in a stronger position in the here and now to push on to win a first league title since 2004.
Granted, Mudryk and Caicedo both have greater upsides in the long run, but both come with risks – Mudryk had never played outside Ukraine and Caicedo has just 34 Premier League appearances to his name. Mikel Arteta has instead added players who between them have played over 300 games in the Premier League. Jorginho brings that intangible quality of having won multiple trophies while Trossard is a league winner from his time at Genk.
The Gunners have addressed weaknesses in their squad while layering on experienced winners. All the while, their closest challengers Manchester City exit the window weakened by the loss of Joao Cancelo.
What's not to like?
It would be remiss not to give the Kroenkes credit here. Their ownership has come in for steep criticism over the years - sometimes warranted, other times not - but they backed Arteta when the logical decision would have been to relieve him of his duties in 2021.
And, now, when the opportunity has presented itself, they have wavered from their philosophy - signing young, up-and-coming players - to commit money on players with little sell-on value in an attempt to get a league win over the line.
The 'Banter Era' is over, long love the 'Ambition Era'.
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Leandro Trossard
Image credit: Getty Images
The real news on Transfer Deadline Day
The man who does - or did, sob - his press conferences standing up, Anthony Richard Pulis, has hung up whatever managers hang up - his cap, maybe - when they retire. Yep, Tony Pulis has brought the curtain down on his career.
He retires with a win percentage of 36% having managed 1137 games.
Cucurella on Jorginho priceless
Marc Cucurella was mid-interview when he found out that Jorginho had sidled out of the Stamford Bridge exit door.
HAT-TIP
Now, Cancelo will tell you otherwise, but the relationship between he and Pep Guardiola had become strained. The very well informed Sam Lee of The Athletic fame has other information.
"The 28-year-old’s reaction to being on the bench against Arsenal in the FA Cup on Friday — the third game in a row in which he was left out of the starting XI and then not brought on — was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Pep Guardiola," writes Lee.
COMING UP
The square root of zero transfers given the window has now shut.
However, football never ends. Thus, Montpellier v PSG, Real Betis against Barcelona and Manchester United against Nottingham Forest will all be given the minute-by-minute treatment this evening.
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