There was a lot of transfer activity at Chelsea during Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital’s first summer at the club.
It was necessary, with Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen both leaving Chelsea as free agents.
Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly were brought in to replace them, but defence was not the only area of the pitch that Boehly, who was acting as sporting director at the time, strengthened.
It has been almost three years since then, so The Chelsea Chronicle has decided to grade the nine players who arrived at Stamford Bridge during the 2022 summer transfer window.
Wesley Fofana
Having already been mentioned and still part of Chelsea’s first team today, Fofana is a good place to start.
The Frenchman arrived in west London as one of the best young defenders in the Premier League. This season, he has proven that he is a very good centre-back. Without him in the side, Chelsea’s win rate drops.
But that is the problem. There have been too many games where the Blues have not had Fofana available because of all of the injuries he has picked up. If it was not for that, he would be getting a really high grade.
Grade: C
Kalidou Koulibaly
Koulibaly was also brought in to help Thomas Tuchel deal with the blow of losing Rudiger and Christensen.
Like Fofana, Koulibaly joined Chelsea with a good reputation. At Napoli, he established himself as one of the best central defenders in the world. Unfortunately, Chelsea fans never got to see that version of the 33-year-old and he was sold after just one season in west London.
Grade: F
Marc Cucurella
Marc Cucurella will probably go down as the most successful signing of Chelsea’s 2022 summer transfer window.
The left-back has turned his Chelsea career around after a difficult debut season at Stamford Bridge. Under both Enzo Maresca and Mauricio Pochettino, he has thrived as an inverted full-back. He has even managed to chip in with a few goals this term.
Grade: B
Raheem Sterling
Signing players with Premier League experience was a recurring theme in Chelsea’s first transfer window under their new owners.
Raheem Sterling boasted a wealth of it, as well as a track record of scoring goals. On paper, he looked like a brilliant addition to Chelsea’s squad, but he proved to be anything but in the end. Sterling scored just six times in the top flight during his first season in blue and has since been shipped off to Arsenal on loan.
Grade: D
Carney Chukwuemeka
Carney Chukwuemeka is clearly a talented footballer. You can see that when he plays. His dribbling is absolutely fantastic at times.
However, the midfielder playing at Chelsea has been a rarity, that is the thing. Chukwuemeka was probably not a signing that the Blues needed to make.
Grade: E
Cesare Casadei
Again, Cesare Casadei is another young talent Chelsea could have done without. He got into Chelsea’s first team this season and the second half of the previous campaign, but neither Maresca nor Pochettino saw him as a genuine option for the Premier League.
Casadei returned to Italy at the start of the month, which was probably best for his career.
Grade: E
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Working with him at Borussia Dortmund, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was a player Tuchel pushed for.
Unfortunately, they did not enjoy the same kind of success they had in Germany at Chelsea. Tuchel was sacked shortly after Aubameyang’s arrival, which surely did not help the striker. He finished the Premier League campaign with just one goal.
Grade: F
Denis Zakaria
Denis Zakaria did not play too much and was only at Chelsea for a season, with the Blues deciding not to sign him after his loan deal.
However, when the midfielder was actually on the pitch, he looked like a real monster at times. It was a while ago now, but it is easy to remember one performance against Manchester City.
Grade: D
Gabriel Slonina
Gabriel Slonina has not played for Chelsea’s first team and probably never will. There are about 100 goalkeepers in front of him. Simply put, another pointless signing.
Grade: U
All in all, there were way more misses than hits in Chelsea’s first transfer window under Boehly and Behdad Eghbali. Let’s hope this summer transfer window is a much better one! Chelsea need more Cucurellas and less Casadeis if they want to be successful again.
