The Best Deadline Day Ever

Whilst Twitter was rife with “Jim White Day” jokes (subsequently stolen by The LAD Bible), football fans were having hearts in mouths. Well, most anyway. But not Chelsea fans.

Luckily for us Blues, Messrs Mourinho and Emenalo had got their work done efficiently and early, as displayed by our early form. They knew what was needed; replacements for Lampard and Cole, and a top class striker. What did they get? Just that.

Cesc Fabregas was signed during the first round of World Cup group games (yes, THAT early) for £3 million less that the fee Man United paid for Ander Herrera. Diego Costa’s deal was announced just after the start of the World Cup, although according to Mourinho there was a gentleman’s agreement made in 2013 via their shared agent that Costa would join this summer. The fee for Costa was £5 million less than that Arsenal paid for Alexis Sanchez. Filipe Luis was signed early on too, and reportedly for half the fee Man United paid for Luke Shaw. We can see a pattern beginning to emerge.

As Samuel Eto’o was released and Demba Ba was sold to Beskitas, the prodigal son Didier Drogba returned on a free transfer, joining up with the squad at the same time as other players from the World Cup. Later, Romelu Lukaku and Fernando Torres were both to leave, and the day after Torres’s departure, Loic Remy was signed from QPR. These deals were done with a swiftness and ease that makes it perplexing why Man United have struggled with target after target in the past 3 windows, with Arsenal also suffering similar problems.

Other outs include Van Aanholt and Bertrand at left back, leading Mourinho to turn to youth in the shape of Nathan Ake, who whilst naturally a centre back, impressed in that position in pre-season, and looks set to become part of the first team squad this season. As David Luiz left for a staggering fee of €50 million, Kurt Zouma returned from a loan at Saint Etienne, and Andres Christensen, again from the Youth Team, have filled the CB back up gap. Thibaut Courtois also returned from his loan at Atletico to take Petr Cech’s first team place.

In short, this transfer window has been perfect. All deals in bar one were done before the start of the season, and the one done after it happened within 24 hours of a gap in the squad being formed. Players out on loan have returned and formed part of the squad, as have players from a Youth Team that was criticised despite winning 3 of the last 5 FA Youth Cups, as well as winning last year’s U21 Premier League. And also the signings have proved vital in the first 3 games; either directly (with Costa’s 4 goals and Fabregas’s 5 assists), or indirectly (the presence of Filipe Luis has seemingly caused Branislav Ivanovic to mutate in to Cafu, shifting Azpilicueta to left back and Luis to the bench).

So back to the joys of deadline day. Why is this the best one ever for Chelsea fans? Because there were no panic buys, no crazy last minute transfers, like £50million for Torres in January 2011, which despite those nights in Barcelona and Amsterdam, was well over the top. Granted, there were 2 loans out, in Marco Van Ginkel (to fix the problem of the number of foreign players) and Nathaniel Chalobah (to get some Premier League gametime at Burnley), however these had been in the pipeline for days. Other than that, it was just a nice relaxing night sat on the sofa, watching Sky Sports News, and enjoying watching other clubs panic buy themselves into submission.