Despite spending almost £250 million this summer, you still feel Chelsea are way off competing for the Premier League. Thomas Tuchel won a Champions League whilst reaching three domestic cup finals in his tenure at Stamford Bridge, but new owner Todd Boehly, clearly adamant on ruling with an iron fist, relieved the German of his duties after an underwhelming start to the new campaign.
It was an admittedly harsh sacking, and while Tuchel joins Scott Parker in the list of managers to have lost their jobs this season, you wonder how much time new boss Graham Potter will have to embed his philosophy on the club. The former Brighton man, whose release clause from the South Coast set Boehly back a further £16 million, will have plenty of expectation to burden on his shoulders, and will have to try and turn the side from top four contenders to favourites with Premier League winner odds at skybet.com in a matter of no time.
Potter has inherited a good team from Tuchel but you felt the club's spending throughout the summer was erratic. Linked with a plethora of players, Chelsea would often jump the gun when it came to signing big names, leaving the side with a combination of different profiles and lacking any real identity. Raheem Sterling represents Premier League experience but the club could have saved themselves plenty of money had they continued their pursuit of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
Nicknamed 'The Georgian Messi', Kvaratskhelia made the switch from Rubin Kazan to Dinamo Batumi due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, playing 11 times in his home country before moving to Serie A side Napoli.
Flying high both domestically and in the Champions League, Luciano Spalletti's side are loving life with their new-look line-up, with most of the team's spine replaced over the summer. Tasked with filling the void left by Lorenzo Insigne, Kvaratskhelia has started brightly and looks a bargain for £11 million, especially when his manager has hinted that the best is still yet to come.
"He has a great personality on the pitch, an insane eye for goal and is unstoppable with the ball at his feet," he said. "So far, it is virtually impossible to find any weaknesses. The only risk is that in the future he will not be able to handle such high pressure.
"He is a player with real quality, a fine professional and a good lad. He has this way of taking opponents on and knows where the goal is, can shoot with his right foot or his left. But he's still getting loosened up."
It was a relatively low-stakes deal to bring the 21-year-old to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, and while many felt his appearances would be sporadic, Spalletti's trust in the winger has reaped its rewards, with four goals already at the time of writing.
Blessed with great technical ability, he can play off the shoulder of forward Victor Osimhen as well as collect the ball from deep and drive at defenders. Having already proved he can be a thorn in the side of English teams, he gave Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold a torrid time as Napoli thrashed Liverpool, and his deceptively strong frame would be tailored to the physicality of the Premier League.
In terms of the Chelsea team, Potter retained the 3-5-2 system that proved successful under the majority of Tuchel's tenure, but if he opts for his more traditional 4-3-3, you could see Kvaratskhelia slotting in perfectly on either side. The Blues pursued his signature initially when he was still in Russia, and you wonder how much they regret not making the move permanent given how much he has impressed in the Serie A already. Don't be surprised if he makes an even bigger move in the near future.
