Chelsea's lack of progress during the current transfer window has already drawn the ire of manager Antonio Conte and many of the club's fans and now, club captain Gary Cahill has spoken out about the lack of new faces that have arrived at Stamford Bridge, this summer.
While over £100 million has been spent on bringing Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger to the club, the Premier League champions have also parted ways with long term club captain John Terry, midfielder Nemanja Matic and, more than likely, the goals of Diego Costa who have, between them, nine Premier League winner's medals.
Even losing the likes of fringe players such as Nathan Ake, Asmir Begovic and Nathaniel Chalobah, along with the loan departure of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, has affected Chelsea's first team, with squad depth worryingly low.
Conte was left with an inexperienced substitutes bench for the Community Shield clash with Arsenal, after several first team players were allowed to leave Stamford Bridge, this summer. Image: PA
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During Sunday's Community Shield clash with Arsenal, Conte was short of experienced options among his substitutes, with youngsters Charly Musonda, Andreas Christensen, Kyle Scott and Jeremie Boga making up more than half of an inexperienced bench.
It was a fact that clearly hasn't been lost on Cahill, who spoke to talkSPORT about his frustrations with the current lack of squad depth.
Cahill was asked if he expected any new signings to be brought in ahead of transfer deadline day on 31st August, replying, "Possibly. Maybe I'm talking out of turn but you would have thought so. There is no getting away from the fact if you look at the back of the programme at the weekend [the squad is small].
"We have certainly got the quality - you have seen that last season - but we have to keep players fit because at the minute our squad isn't as big as some of the other squads."
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Cahill has been handed the captain's armband at Stamford Bridge, following the departure of long term skipper John Terry. Image: PA
Chelsea's current squad currently contains just 24 registered players, while Arsenal's, the Blues' opponents this past weekend, was almost double that, at 41.
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Antonio Conte has been frustrated in fruitless pursuits of Dani Alves and Alex Sandro and is now believed to be targeting a move for Arsenal midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, with the champions reportedly making a £25 million bid for the England international.
With Conte calling for Chelsea to avoid a repeat of their last title defence, under Jose Mourinho, in which the Blues finished the season in 10th place, the Italian coach will be hoping some significant action is taking over the course of the next three weeks before the transfer window closes until January.
(H/T talkSPORT)
Topics: Football, Chelsea FC, Gary Cahill