If there is one key lesson from Liverpool’s title triumph for Chelsea to absorb then it is surely the importance of sometimes paying the going rate for players capable of changing a team’s mentality and raising the level as soon as they join.
That is not to say there is no logic to Chelsea’s wider strategy of scouring the world for young talent and betting on their potential by handing out heavily incentivised long contracts. They have been ridiculed at times but believe vindication will arrive. The club are sticking with this approach and will be able to argue with some justification that the project is on schedule if Champions League qualification is in the bag at the end of the season.
