Chelsea scout warned sporting directors about summer transfer failings | OneFootball

Chelsea head into tonight’s game in the Champions League really struggling for depth.

The Blues have lost players throughout the team, and as they reach just the second game of an 8 game Champions League group stage, the cupboard looks pretty bare, especially in defence.

Many of us saw this coming, but one pundit who has just spoken pretty openly about it was Seyi Olofinjana, now a scout for the Blues.

Chelsea scout saw trouble coming this summer

Chelsea squad in a group photo at full time. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

“I’ve got to be very careful what I say here, I work for Chelsea. But to be honest, this is what I discussed even with the directors in the football club,” the former Premier League midfielder explained to AllNigeriaSoccer.

“Before any ball was kicked this season, I knew Chelsea would struggle given the season they had last year. When the season was finished, whether they won the Club World Cup was immaterial.

“When you play back-to-back and then you have only a week to come back into a new season [injuries will come], it happened with Levi Colwill who has an ACL injury at the moment and will be out for a long time.”

“He’s a major part of what we did last year, talking about Chelsea, he’s a good defender by all accounts, left-footed, gives us a good balance. He can play some killer passes, so he was central to everything we did,” Olofinjana said.

Hato thrown into action before he’s ready

As the former Wolves man points out, the idea was to have Hato as cover, after a long period where he could adapt. However he’s already been thrown into action:

“Losing Colwill, you’ve got Jorrel Hato coming in, they brought him as a potential understudy that begins to play probably in a year or so. You lose Cole Palmer, so these are the three problems you are beginning to look at. Who unlocks the defence for João Pedro and Estêvão?”