Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards has a theory that Chelsea and Mauricio Pochettino could sign a "monster" player from abroad.
Who have Chelsea signed 2023?
Chelsea continued their lavish spending under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital with a £397 million total expenditure over the latest summer transfer window. Indeed, Pochettino's side sealed an array of deals for Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson, Lesley Ugochukwu, Robert Sanchez, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer, Djordje Petrovic, Angelo and Deivid Washington before deadline day.
In terms of outgoings, Chelsea managed to offload Kalidou Koulibaly, N'Golo Kante, Edouard Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Mateo Kovacic, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Cesar Azpilicueta, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ethan Ampadu and Callum Hudson-Odoi – who all left either on loan or permanently for £230 million in total.
Whenever the Stamford Bridge side are concerned, you can always expect headlines to be made with transfers, but that hasn't exactly translated into results on the field. So far, Chelsea have suffered defeat at the hands of Aston Villa, West Ham and Nottingham Forest – while also failing to clinch needed wins against the likes of Liverpool and Bournemouth.
Their sole victory came against Luton Town, who have largely been tipped to go straight back down to the Championship. Pochettino, speaking after his side's latest 1-0 loss to Aston Villa at home, says his side need to grow up and fast.
“We need to grow up like a team, not only in an individual way,” said Pochettino. “I think players like Nico who are so young and feeling the Premier League, they need time. In this type of game, we are competing and want to win and football is about winning. But also players, when they are young, need to learn, and experience and make mistakes. That’s why we feel disappointed as there are too many situations like this.”
What's the latest Chelsea transfer news?
Perhaps most alarmingly, Chelsea have failed to score a single goal in their last three league games despite creating a host of chances in the final third. You could argue that the missing ingredient for Pochettino is a world-class, instinctive scorer with a proven record at finding the net.
Napoli star Victor Osimhen and Brentford striker Ivan Toney have been tipped as options for the new year in that regard, with reports even suggesting they could use players as makeweights in a deal for the latter forward. Osimhen, meanwhile, is said to be attracting interest from Chelsea, with Sky pundit Richards theorizing he will make the move to west London.
When discussing the Nigeria international on The Rest Is Football podcast, Gary Lineker asked the question “where does he go from here?”. Richards replied: “Chelsea," while Alan Shearer mooted Newcastle as a tongue in cheek option.
The 24-year-old scored 26 league goals for Napoli last season and played a heavy hand in helping them clinch their first Scudetto title since the 1990s. As a result, members of the media have called Osimhen a "monster" striker.