Chelsea fans can speculate about what might have happened if Thomas Tuchel had gotten his transfer wishes. If the Blues had been lining up with Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha and Frenkie de Jong in the early weeks of the season or if Dinamo Zagreb would have been beaten by a team that had a fit Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Ultimately these scenarios are moot. Tuchel didn't get all of his wishes and the relationship he had developed with the new owners spiralled. Not in a malicious way but to the extent that there was a clash. Tuchel had the vision he signed up for 19 months ago and the new group wanted to remove themselves from the 'old Chelsea' and move onto pastures new.
The irony is that Tuchel, who didn't want as much involvement in transfers, then got frustrated at the lack of action in the market.
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In some ways, it was this that demonstrated the lack of coordination between the two factions. It is hard to imagine that, despite the overhaul in attack that Tuchel desired, even the additions he wanted would have been able to overturn the sour mood that had spread from disgruntled forwards and towards previously content members of the squad.
A refresh of players always brings optimism though, and Chelsea didn't move quickly enough to ensure there was time to get the best out of arrivals, even on a poor pre-season tour. Although anybody that might have come in an alternate window may have experienced similar issues,
One of the late ploys of the window, though it had been in the pipeline for a while, was to engineer a move for exciting AC Milan winger Raphael Leao. The Portuguese star was always an option throughout the window but more pressing areas of the field took priority, meaning that a late push for the 23-year-old was always likely to decline the closer to the window shutting Chelsea got.
Reports emerged that Chelsea had made an offer for Leao, hoping to use previous talks with Hakim Ziyech to tempt the Italian champions, with Gianluca Di Marzio reporting, "Chelsea offered €70-80m in the last days for Leao, there was no time to do the deal and find a replacement even though they liked Ziyech."
However, the interest remains in the player and, given there has been an existing relationship after transfers involving Olivier Giroud and Fiyako Tomori, Di Marzio expected more action to take place. He said, "If Leao doesn’t renew his contract, I think Chelsea will come back."
Fabrizio Romano has dampened the feeling though, saying that Milan are still discussing his contract: "Despite rumours of contract talks stalling, AC Milan have been negotiating with Rafa Leao for a long time and talks will continue – anything more than that is speculation. The club has always refused any approach as he has a €150m release clause."
Hope remains on the Chelsea side according to Corriere dello Sport who say, "AC Milan are currently not willing to meet Rafael Leao's demand for contract renewal giving Chelsea renewed hope of signing the Portuguese winger in the summer."
How Graham Potter might have used Leao might never be known and he will have to make a decision united with the new director of football - whenever that is sorted out.
Leao isn't the only flairy winger that has caught Chelsea's eye though, and another target has instead gone on to already score his Premier League goal for Manchester United.
In an interview with Voetbal Primeur, Piet de Visser, a scout at Chelsea under Roman Abramovich, said, "Together with Hans van der Zee we saw him [Antony] for the first time at Brazil’s youth ranks and we were both charmed by him. That was a few years ago, just before he went to Ajax.
"I thought he had to make an intermediate step and then Hans suggested Ajax. And then we would take him right from Ajax. We couldn’t get him, I would have wanted him. He’s a boy with poison in his backside. He sometimes crosses the line, but he comes from the favela, doesn’t he?"
Chelsea never made a formal approach for Antony this summer and would have likely been put off by his £86m price that Erik ten Hag ended up paying, but given the consistent attacking struggles, Chelsea fans will watch on in awe as Leao and Antony express themselves whilst uncertainty over how Potter will get the best from Chelsea's structured forwards remains.
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