Chelsea continued their big spending ways this summer as the club looked to rebuild under new manager Mauricio Pochettino.
The Blues have now spent more than £1billion since a consortium led by Todd Boehly bought the club from Roman Abramovich last year. They have broken the British transfer record twice in just over six months, first spending around £105m to sign Enzo Fernandez in February and then forking out £115m for Moises Caicedo in August.
Unsurprisingly, Chelsea were also rather active on deadline day, spending £42.5m on Cole Palmer as well as selling Callum Hudson-Odoi to Nottingham Forest and shipping young prospects Mason Burstow, Diego Moreira and Bashir Humphreys out on loan. However, Hudson-Odoi’s move to Forest was not the only contact between the two clubs this summer as Chelsea made a late attempt to sign striker Taiwo Awoniyi.
Awoniyi, who joined Forest for a club record fee from Union Berlin last summer, is enjoying a particularly impressive run of form. The 26-year-old scored in each of Forest’s final four Premier League games last season and has picked up where he left off in the new campaign.
Awoniyi found the back of the net in Forest’s first three games against Arsenal, Sheffield United and Manchester United, before assisting Anthony Elanga’s winner in their 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge the day after the transfer window closed.
However, things could have been much different that day, with the Athletic reporting that Chelsea did enquire about signing the striker 48 hours before the window slammed shut. Forest, though, were ‘in a position to say no’ and quickly rebuffed their advances and the former Liverpool striker remained at the City Ground.
Awoniyi has scored 14 goals for Forest across 34 appearances in all competitions, having never actually made an appearance for Liverpool in his six years at the club. And while Forest were able to hang on to Awoniyi, they did sell fellow striker Brennan Johnson to Tottenham for a club record £47.5m as Spurs reinvested a significant chunk of the money they got from Bayern Munich for Harry Kane.
“It’s special being a Spurs player,” Johnson told club media. “It’s a dream come true for me to play for a club of this stature. If I went back and saw myself where I am now, I wouldn’t believe it for a second, but everything happens for a reason. I’ve enjoyed the ride so much and I’m really proud of where I am now – I can’t wait to keep pushing forward.
“It was a dream come true to play for Nottingham Forest’s first team, being from the area I really enjoyed every minute of playing for them. It was really special, but I felt now was the right time to really try and kick on and I’m buzzing to be here at Spurs.
“The way the Club’s going at the minute it feels like it’s in such a good moment and going in the right direction. Everyone’s onboard, the fans are unbelievable, the manager has come in and the players have got behind him so at this moment in time it was the perfect decision for me and something I wanted to be involved in.”
