"Nobody ever won anything by selling players."
If those are true words then Chelsea should be worried. Their summer window has been very much a case of exits first, departures second and sales third. When a squad is 32 players high without considering the sea of loan talent coming back, it's a fair strategy.
There is reason behind their mass exodus that is more than just building finances to go again. On June 30 the club have a deadline for accounting and need to do as much balancing of the books as possible. After spending more than £600 million ($767m) in less than 12 months just to finish 12th and miss out on the additional finances of the Champions League, serious surgery was needed.
Having mounted the squad with players underperforming, overpaid, ageing and running down contracts to 2023 and 2024, there was little else that could be done. Less than two weeks since the transfer window sprung open, already bursting at the seams with deals to be done, Chelsea have made great progress.
Two of the top earners are already off the books and a static group of stars providing little in terms of output or value are set to be on the way out. Kalidou Koulibaly is the latest to have his exit confirmed by the club, following on from N'Golo Kante last week.
The announcements will keeo rolling in, too. Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech will follow the pair to Saudi Arabia meaning that four players over 30 will be off the cards, reducing the wage budget, squad size and making a small chunk of cash back.
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Mateo Kovacic will soon be wearing a different shade of blue in Manchester, Kai Havertz is swapping blue for red instead, heading to Arsenal. That is soon to be six down and even the arrival of Levi Colwill, Andrey Santos and Cesare Casadei from their respective loan moves mean they are making a dent in the playing group.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is likely to follow having made progress towards a sale to AC Milan. There are decisions to be made over where Christian Pulisic, Cesar Azpilicueta and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang end up but their exits are all inevitable in some form.
Suddenly the shape of the squad is very different, much younger and less experienced but fresher and more energetic. When it comes to what they have, it's very inbalanced on the field.
Chelsea have defenders for days - even with the likely players on the go - but will be hellishly short in midfield and up front. Nicolas Jackson is set to arrive for around £30m ($38m) but at 21 and with one year of first team experience, he's hardly a guarantee of immediate goals.
Christopher Nkunku has arrived already but is not the focal point Mauricio Pochettino demands. In midfield, they may be able to give a more prominent role to Conor Gallagher and Carney Chukwuemeka as well as Santos and Casadei but it's a lot of pressure and expectation on a young quartet.
It is the midfield and striker roles that need the most attention and when it comes to the perfect example for getting business done, it's a glance to Arsenal that is needed. The Gunners have done their fire-sale, even though it was not to the grand scale of this emergency shuttle bus that Chelsea are operating.
The issue is that not everything outside of the squad size and finance is fine. The midfield last season was missing key partnerships and an anchor to allow Enzo Fernandez to truly roam and create from the front. Even with a whole team's worth of attackers there was nobody that got into double figures. Cohesion was at an all-time low and goals conceded - though not a major issue - were coming in comical fashion on a weekly basis.
Selling players was certainly a must but to think that it will all be fine once they leave is far from the truth. Chelsea have just over six weeks to get cracking and ready for the Premier League's return and the only way to be firing for the top of the table will be with incomings on their way.
Arsenal, for example, are in serious talks to not only bring in Havertz - which has it's optical questions, for sure - but also Declan Rice for over £100m ($124m) and also centre-back Jurrien Timber for over £30million ($38m). In the space of three weeks it could be that Mikel Arteta's title challengers have added three major players in areas of the pitch previously identified and are making tracks towards improvement and quality in depth immediately.
Due to the constraints of financial and squad burdens, Chelsea have had other, much bigger issues to deal with. Prioritising such business was necessary but it is perhaps now time to turn an eye to those coming in with the ambition of having major additions made before pre-season is too far gone.
Otherwise, Chelsea could fall behind their rivals that have been much more active without the need to ship out boatloads of stars. It is a reality born from poor prior work in the market and one that can now only be corrected with the right timing, and the clock is starting to tick.
