Chelsea set up for major summer transfer spend after quiet January puts Blues into black | OneFootball

This is a syndicated version of this story, originally featured on the BBC Sport website.

Chelsea’s January ended up being a quiet one – which was always what was expected, despite some tantalising and far-fetched rumours along the way.

The winter window’s purpose for the Blues these days is mainly to shuffle their loans around, and that made up the bulk of the action at Cobham in the last few weeks. Mamadou Sarr was brought back from Strasbourg to add to Liam Rosenior’s options at the back, while Aaron Anselmino and David Datro Fofana went the other way.

Given their ongoing settlement with UEFA over past overspending, Chelsea were never going to spend big unless they sold players. Once it was clear they weren’t getting any serious offers for those they were willing to shift, the rumoured moves for high priced stars like Jeremy Jacquet became unrealistic.

Housekeeping puts Chelsea in better position for second half of the season

Mamadou Sarr signs for Chelsea.

Of course fans would have dreamed for major additions, but important housekeeping was done nevertheless. Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi are now gone, meaning the embarrassing, immoral and potentially illegal “bomb squad” has been dissolved – for now.

A quiet January also sets Chelsea up for a far busier summer, when they will have a better idea of what Rosenior wants and needs to add, and who he’s willing to part with. Players like Sarr get an extra chance to adapt and impress.

So while it wasn’t an exciting window, it was still a significant one. The lingering fear is that if Jacquet – the one first team target seriously pursued by Chelsea in January – ends up being as good as some people say he could be, the decisions made this month could end up looking much worse in retrospect.

@willfaulks Will Faulks