Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel did not push for January signings as he and the club prioritise several summer transfer targets, according to The Athletic.
The Blues have relatively been quiet in January transfer windows in the last few years, so the lack of transfer was not exactly a surprise.
Ben Chilwell’s long-term injury is a big problem, obviously, but Tuchel’s first option, which was to recall Emerson Palmieri from his season-long loan spell at Lyon, proved difficult without having a break clause in the deal.
Barcelona winger Ousmane Dembele was also linked with a move to Stamford Bridge on deadline day.
However, recent reports suggest that Chelsea were only interested in the possibility of signing him on a free transfer at the end of the season.
While Tuchel has previously talked about the possibility of January transfers, The Athletic claims he did push for any new signing.
Instead, Chelsea will reportedly focus on their summer transfer targets.
The list, the report added, includes Sevilla’s Jules Kounde, West Ham’s Declan Rice, and AS Monaco’s Aurelien Tchouameni.
All three have been linked with Chelsea for a while now, particularly Kounde who was very close to joining last summer.
Chelsea’s quiet January window makes a lot of sense now as they can allocate the budget for long-term targets.
They are pretty much out of the Premier League title race, and while January signings might help win trophies, they could easily end up having a hard time selling more players in the future like in recent years.
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