Todd Boehly is continuing to add new faces to Chelsea's new recruitment team with Paul Winstanley the latest to join. As announced by the club on Tuesday afternoon, the former head of recruitment at Brighton will join the club as Director of Global Talent and Transfers.
This follows the appointment of Laurence Stewart as a technical director from Monaco, with Joe Shields soon to join as Head of Recruitment from Southampton.
Building that structure is key ahead of a potentially crucial January transfer window where the club could again be dipping into the market to improve Graham Potter's struggling squad.
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The World Cup in Qatar offers a glimpse at some of those targets, one of them focusing on the need for a new central midfielder in Edson Alvarez.
The 25-year-old has been named in Gerardo Martino's Mexico squad for the World Cup and will likely feature in their first game against Poland in Group C on November 22.
Alvarez was linked with a deadline-day move to Stamford Bridge back in September but Ajax were reluctant to let him leave after the Eredivisie's own deadline had already passed. Although the interest appeared to come out of nowhere, football.london previously reported the midfielder is someone who has been tracked by the west London club for some time.
Although the player was reportedly open to a move, once it broke down Chelsea turned their attention to Denis Zakaria, who would instead join on loan from Juventus. But the cries for midfield investment have not been silenced since, with Potter struggling to find balance since taking charge in September.
N'Golo Kante has been injured since August whilst Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have all been inconsistent in their own form. The lack of a dominant presence in the centre of midfield has arguably been absent since the departure of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United in 2017.
There are some worries over Alvarez, how he could fit into a faster league, compared to the dominance Ajax enjoy and the problems some players have had adjusting to life in England after leaving the Eredivisie.
Alvarez opened up about the failed move to ESPN in Holland. He said “I am very disappointed about it [Chelsea transfer not going through]. But I am convinced that one day a big club will come. We never expected Chelsea to put in another bid at the end of August. It was a difficult situation. Ajax couldn't do anything."
Chelsea needs a defensive-minded midfielder that can cover ground more quickly and easily than Jorginho. Offering a stable shield to the defence whilst also possession comfort in possession-heavy teams, something Ajax definitely are.
The reality of Jorginho and Kante having contracts that expire in the summer further heightens the pressure on Chelsea's newly formed recruitment team to get the next step right. Is there a cheaper alternative to Alvarez or could he, as Matic did when he returned to the club in January of 2014, offer a vital mid-season boost to improve a struggling area in Potter's system?
Chelsea will be hoping Alvarez will come out of the World Cup feeling fit and confident should they return for his signature in the new year.
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