Chelsea’s plan to sign 22 year old attacker next summer shows Blues are finally thinking ahead | OneFootball

Good football teams always plan one or two transfer windows ahead.

That’s been difficult for Chelsea in the last few years – the new ownership arrived and wanted to change the entire model. That meant a lot of selling players and a lot of reactive business. But that process is complete now, and they can start thinking about the future rather than clearing out the mistakes of the past.

The evidence is that that sort of forward planning is now really kicking into gear. The proof of that comes in the hectic headline day situation around Nicolas Jackson.

Chelsea planning for post-Jackson era before striker has departed

Emanuel Emegha celebrates a goal (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP)

The striker moved to Bayern Munich on deadline day, and Chelsea were left with a few options. They could sign an expensive new young player to replace him – Conrad Harder was ready to leave Sporting and was mentioned.

Or they could gamble on recalling Marc Guiu from his loan at Sunderland. In the end they did that – but their reasoning is particularly interesting. It was not just a money saving exercise.

Blues target sister club’s star player for next summer

According to Nizaar Kinsella, part of the Blues reasoning for not spending on a Jackson replacement this summer is their desire to not disrupt their long term plan – which is to sign Emanuel Emegha from their sister club Strasbourg.

They want to leave him there another year to keep playing and developing, but are confident they can land him next summer. The last thing they want to do is spend big on another player at a similar age who will act as a block, or another asset to be moved on next summer.

Of course they’re gambling on Guiu getting the job done as third choice striker this season – but they have a reason to take that risk.