Have Chelsea finally spent wisely enough to win Premier League with kids? Alonso isn’t saying

Xabi Alonso faced the press in Hong Kong this week and tried to play down the increasing expectations on Chelsea, saying the club’s overarching mission this season was to “have the feeling that we are competitive, that we deserve to fight for important things”. Still, after four years of lavish spending under the club’s BlueCo ownership returned only two trophies, Chelsea’s 180-degree change in recruitment policy, coupled with the hiring of Alonso, has raised the question over whether this is the year they spend their way to the Premier League title. A club does not pay £117 million (US$157.5 million) for a player, as Chelsea have to acquire Morgan Rogers, to finish among the nearly men. Equally, the pivot from not buying a player aged 26 or older since 2022, to this summer purchasing 26-year-old defender Maxence Lacroix from Crystal Palace for £52 million, then doubling down with the additions of Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, 35 and 36, respectively, is illustrative of BlueCo’s belated recognition that, in the immortal words of Alan Hansen, “you can’t win anything with kids”. Last season, Chelsea’s callow squad took to calling Tosin Adarabioyo, the 28-year-old defender, “uncle”. That the Manchester United team Hansen was talking about won the Premier League and FA Cup double does not diminish the former Liverpool defender’s point. In that 1995-96 Old Trafford side the youthful David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville had old stagers Eric Cantona, Steve Bruce, Denis Irwin and Peter Schmeichel for company. In April, Chelsea co-owner Behdad Eghbali intimated that the days of ignoring players born in the last century had gone. “We try to improve the plan and tweak the plan if it is not working,” he said. “We’ve got to be better on a few things, to add more ready-made players at this part of the project, to take [it] to the next level, to be consistent over time.” Roberto Di Matteo, the former Chelsea midfielder, and the head coach who masterminded the club’s first Champions League triumph in 2012, told the South China Morning Post that the experienced newcomers would act like parents for their younger teammates. “As a teenager, you don’t always like your parents’ advice but they have more life experience, they’ve gone through it and can give you suggestions,” Di Matteo said. “In certain games, when the result’s in the balance, those players are important.” Adamant the scars from his turbulent seven-month Real Madrid reign have healed, Alonso, who left the Spanish club in January, has also splashed out on the 22-year-old Argentina fullback Valentin Barco. Similarly, the 23-year-old striker Emmanuel Emegha, like Barco, has arrived from sister club Strasbourg, and right-sided attacker Geovany Quenda, 19, from Sporting Lisbon. Marco Palestra may only be 21, but was named Serie A defender of the year while on loan at Cagliari from Atalanta last season. However much he might be feeling the heat, and given the financial muscle provided by his new bosses, Alonso dodged the issue ahead of Chelsea’s Hong Kong Football festival clash with Juventus: a game his side lost 1-0 on Wednesday to an excellent 68th-minute curling strike from Edon Zhegrova at Kai Tak Stadium. “Each season it’s a moment to invest, to buy, to sell players, but to do things with a plan that we had in mind,” he told the SCMP. “We have three more weeks of the transfer market, but we have an idea how we want to finish. Let’s try to accomplish it the best possible way. “Let’s see where we are in May, but, for sure we want to have the feeling that we are competitive, that we deserve to fight for important things during this season. Time will tell, but that’s our goal.” Di Matteo, who brought Eden Hazard, Oscar and Cesar Azpilicueta to the club in 2012, said the cash outlay would not load pressure on Alonso’s shoulders because “the market dictates the prices of the players, and you have to pay it, whether you disagree with it or not.” For all the criticism of Chelsea’s abandoned youth-investment strategy, it is not hard to understand BlueCo’s motivation for pursuing it. The consortium is an investment vehicle designed to make money. In their first transfer window four years ago, Chelsea splurged on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 33, the 31-year-old Kalidou Koulibaly, and Raheem Sterling, who was 27. Aubameyang and Koulibaly were gone 12 months later for a combined loss of around £23 million, while Sterling never came close to the heights he reached during seven years with Manchester City. Likewise, it would be disingenuous to overlook BlueCo’s ability to generate cash from player sales. Offloading a string of squad members for big money last summer allowed them to record a trading profit despite shelling out for the likes of Joao Pedro, Jamie Gittens and Liam Delap, the striker who cost £30 million but looks increasingly surplus to requirements. Amid the outlay under Alonso, they banked in the region of £115 million from selling Marc Cucurella, Andrey Santos and Tyrique George, the academy product whose £18 million transfer to Everton will be recorded as pure profit in the books. Di Matteo said that a trophy from the coming campaign, to add to the Club World Cup and Uefa Conference League they won last year, would be a “nice touch”, but that evidence of “progression and development” would qualify as a successful season. Nonetheless, from Jack Walker-bankrolled Blackburn Rovers in 1995, through Chelsea after Roman Abramovich’s 2003 takeover, to Manchester City under their current Abu Dhabi regime, the high rollers have had to live with title-winning expectation. It will be no different for Alonso. “He has a nice squad to work with, he knows what to do and how to do it,” Di Matteo said. “I hope for him and for the club that it’s going to be as successful, but I don’t want to put any pressure on them. Let’s give him time to give the team a vision, and an identity. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

Have Chelsea finally spent wisely enough to win Premier League with kids? Alonso isn’t saying

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Morgan Rogers’ transfer made the headlines, but arrival of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck could be club’s best business decision

Morgan Rogers’ transfer made the headlines, but arrival of Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck could be club’s best business decision