For many clubs in Europe, the summer transfer deadline has passed and their business will now be finished until they have a chance to shuffle their ranks in January.
Chelsea will most likely mark the past few months as a success in their books, landing top target Moises Caicedo after months of working to get a deal done. There may be questions over the £115million price tag and uncertainty over Liverpool’s push, but at the end of the window, he’s wearing blue.
Romeo Lavia, Nicolas Jackson, Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Cole Palmer and Robert Sanchez are just a few of the new faces who made their way in during a busy period that saw a huge influx of youth prospects. The club also managed to move off most of their outcast stars that no longer had a future there.
It means that Mauricio Pochettino can finally get down to work without the distractions of new players that he will need to integrate into his style of play. That’s not to say that all their business may stop there though as, in terms of a couple more outgoings, there are still other markets open that could look to land a couple players.
There’s also likely to be another shuffle in the free transfer market, with players that were unable to find clubs becoming an attractive proposition as they’re free to join outside of a transfer window. It’s rare that a top-end club like Chelsea will land a star at this stage, but there’s one out there that could cap a dream summer.
In this case, it’s club legend Eden Hazard, who became a free agent earlier this summer after ending his ties with Real Madrid. The Belgian international struggled to fit in at Los Blancos as injury concerns piled up until he was no longer seen as a key part of the project.
Hazard enjoyed some of the best years of his career in blue, spending seven-years at the club and racking up six trophies in that time. While things have no doubt changed since he left for the big-money move, the 32-year-old could still play an invaluable role within the team now.
Hazard has Premier League experience and could play a huge role in helping nurture some of the young talent currently with the Blues. A lot of the goal scoring burden currently lies on Raheem Sterling, but with Hazard as a rotational option, that pressure may be lifted while he isn’t under the same injury strain of playing every week.
There’s an obvious sentimental aspect to it, Hazard may not earn the same wage at Stamford Bridge as he could elsewhere and he may not have that same importance in the squad with his role. However, in this instance, it’s a deal that just makes sense for where the club are, have been and want to be.
