Whether or not Chelsea sign an attacker to go alongside Raheem Sterling remains to be seen.
Currently, all focus is on the defensive re-structure with Jules Kounde and Presnel Kimpembe negotiations ongoing but once they come to an end, a 'couple' more players could still be signed before the September 1 deadline. "I have a figure I think we need a couple more players in to improve the squad," manager Thomas Tuchel said in his recent press conference.
"We were third last season. We cannot discuss the reason forever but there was a gap between us Manchester City and Liverpool. I think in general if you want to keep your position if you want to fight for the same position you need to improve you cannot stand still. If you stand still other teams will overtake you. Given the position that we even lost players its common sense that we need to bring new quality to the team to maintain our level. Not even speaking about improving our level, so this is the situation where we are right now.
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"It's the dream of any manager that you find players in your own league, that can adapt very quickly. But it's an individual process. Of course, we see that Raheem knows many players from the national team and he is very familiar with the habits in English clubs. This is nice to see.
"For Kalidou, it's a big help we have some French guys, that we have Edou (Mendy), his teammate from the national team, and Jorgi who is a big help from Napoli. It makes the process of integration faster because this is huge and both of them should be huge players for us. This is why we need to speed things up."
At one point, Raphinha and Ousmane Dembele looked set to become Chelsea players this summer. However, Barcelona's economic manoeuvres freed them the funds to sign both up on different contracts.
The pair scored on their first outing in 2022/23 in pre-season together as Barcelona trumped David Beckham's Inter Miami by 6-0 overnight. With both now fully moved on and focused with the task ahead to dethrone Real Madrid next season in La Liga, Chelsea's attentions will now be elsewhere. Will they sign an out-and-out No.9 or an attacker who can play in a fluid system? This remains to be seen, but one player who fits this category is Neymar.
Chelsea were linked earlier in the window to making an ambitious move for the Brazilian but Christophe Galtier's admission seemed to put the brakes on this dream move. Since then, Man City have been linked and Pep Guardiola has swatted away rumours as the transfer truth surrounding the 30-year-old has been revealed.
"I’m sorry but it’s not true. Their information is not right, Neymar is an incredible player and the info I have he’s an incredibly nice guy. But it’s not right," Guardiola said in a pre-season press conference. "Every summer City are going to buy 150 players!"
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