Chelsea head coach Graham Potter has warned that further spending in this transfer window could upset the balance of his squad on the afternoon Mykhaylo Mudryk became the fifth addition in the opening 15 days of the winter market.
After stealing the Ukraine winger from under the noses of Arsenal by offering a deal worth up to £87m including add-ons, Potter said that he is looking forward to working with the fourth most expensive player in Premier League history.
But he also sounded a cautionary note around the amount of new faces arriving at Stamford Bridge at a time when 10 first-team players are sidelined by injury, while calling on the need for a stable structure behind the scenes.
“We want to play better,” the head coach said after today's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. “We want more wins. You need a squad that’s balanced. You need a squad that’s got the right amount of competition.
“I think we’ve got to be not necessarily careful, but I think you’ve just got to understand that we’ve got about 10 players unavailable. Obviously you can’t just sign players to replace those because in the end, you have a squad of 30. You have to do the right thing and the window is complicated in January.”
Having been asked whether fans should expect more signings before the deadline, Potter then stressed the need for alignment. Chelsea could still add another right back and holding midfielder in the next two weeks.
“You have to stabilise things and work to support the club as best as you can,” Potter added. “If you’re in a position where over too small a period too many people are making recruitment decisions, it’s not really the recipe for success. We have to make good decisions. And we have to align our resources. They have to be used in the right way.”
As for Mudryk, Potter added: "He's a young player with a big future. He’s exciting, he can go one v one, he’s direct. He attacks the back line. He can go in wide areas but he can also affect closer to goal. He's a really exciting player and our supporters will really like him."
The 22-year-old has signed an eight-and-a-half-year contract
Potter would not be drawn on the duration of his latest new signing’s contract but at the end of a week in which the pressure on his own job ramped up he could still find some humour by saying: “If I'm here for the remainder of his contract, we'll all be happy."
