Todd Boehly verdict given as Thomas Tuchel backed with record-breaking Chelsea transfer window spent

Chelsea delivered a record breaking transfer window after spending in excess of £270 million on new signings which saw the likes of Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all signed for the club. 

Denis Zakaria was also signed on loan, while youngsters Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei were acquired for the future.

It was a busy summer for Chelsea who offloaded a lot of big players to reduce the wage bill and make room for new signings.

Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner departed, while outcasts Ross Barkley and Kenedy left with Michy Batshuayi joining Fenerbahce. 

Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen were two high profile departures and they needed replacing, but Chelsea were left to chase the pack after being sanctioned until the end of May, leaving them starting from scratch at the beginning of June with their transfer plans.

The new ownership had to quickly find their feet, and they did despite facing many challenges along the way during the summer, including the transfer battles with Barcelona which the latter came out on top several times.

But as the window slammed shut on Thursday night and the arrivals of Aubameyang and Zakaria were confirmed, Chelsea’s fate was sealed and it was a record spend for a single transfer window which came to over £270 million, beating Manchester City’s transfer spend of around £220 million in 2017. 

It was something Chelsea had to do to help the rebuild after losing so many key players. Tuchel needed backing and Todd Boehly, Clearlake Capital and Co provided that. 

The Chelsea head coach wasn’t aware of the record spend in the summer, but heaped praise on the new owners over their approach and support bringing in big names to bolster the squad for 2022-23.

“(Broke the transfer record?) Oh really?” a surprised Tuchel said during a press conference. 

“We can discuss if we overspend or if it is too much money for the players but the players we got are very very good players, very good personalities. Everything was desperately needed to rebuild the group and inspire the group. I think we did excellent signings. 

“It does not help if we talk about the price too much. It’s maybe hard to argue this is way too much money, okay. This is how the market was for us. Maybe we were not in the perfect position to always find the right timing and price. That’s nobody’s fault. The players we got fit perfectly. I am very happy to work with this group.”

Fofana was a big-money signing who arrived from Leicester City in the final week of the window for around £70 million. Tuchel was extremely complimentary of the new owners’ dedication to ensure a deal got done.

He added on his happiness of signing Fofana: “Very because he is the kind of profile that we identify very early as a replacement for Toni and Andreas. We are very happy that we stayed patient, super happy that Todd and Behdad were relentless on it and never gave up and we managed to fulfil this transfer. Wesley is young, fast, very strong in set pieces, defending and attacking. He was one of the very early targets to replace our guys that left the club.”

Boehly and Co have delivered for Tuchel. Now it’s on the Chelsea boss to repay the faith with results on the pitch. He knows it’s down to him now. 

“The pressure is on. The responsibility is on me. It’s always like this, no?”