Where are they now? Mykhailo Mudryk & Chelsea’s other January 2023 signings | OneFootball

The first year of BlueCo’s Chelsea ownership was absolutely bananas. They invested well over £250million on the likes of Marc Cucurella, Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana in the summer, but they weren’t done there.

After dispensing with the services of Thomas Tuchel following a poor start to the 2022-23 campaign, they appointed Graham Potter. But results failed to pick up and the club were languishing in mid-table at the halfway stage.

In an attempt to put things right, chairman Todd Boehly sanctioned even more signings – taking the club’s spending to over half a billion pounds that season – and it’s fair to say that lot were a mixed bag.

Here are the eight players Chelsea signed that winter window and where they are today.

Benoit Badiashile

Hands up. Who else had forgotten about the existence of this guy?

Chelsea paid Monaco around £32million for the defender, who signed a seven-and-a-half-year contract. He played fairly regularly across his first 18 months at Stamford Bridge but was demoted to Enzo Maresca’s band of Conference League ringers last season.

The 25-year-old has been pushed further to the periphery this season, having spent a long spell on the sidelines with a serious hamstring injury. He’s made just six Premier League starts in 2025-26.

David Datro Fofana

One of the lesser-remembered names from that madcap January splurge, Chelsea paid a reported £10million to sign the young Ivory Coast international from Molde.

He made his debut off the bench in the Blues’ 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Manchester City that month and managed just three appearances, totalling 70 minutes, in the Premier League.

Subsequent years have seen the forward loaned out to Union Berlin, Burnley, Goztepe and Fatih Karagumruk.

Fofana remains on Chelsea’s books and is now – somewhat inevitably – on loan at BlueCo sister outfit Strasbourg.

Andrey Santos

The Brazilian was swiftly loaned back to Vasco da Gama after joining Chelsea a few days into the window.

He was subsequently loaned out to Nottingham Forest, which was a waste of time with close to zero minutes. A season and a half at Strasbourg proved much more fruitful, particularly last term under the guidance of Liam Rosenior, in which he chipped in with 10 goals in Ligue 1.

The 21-year-old midfielder now appears to have adapted to the pace of the European game and has become a useful squad player back at Chelsea this season.

Mykhailo Mudryk

After his incessant flirtation with Arsenal, Chelsea swooped in to sign the Ukrainian winger for a whopping deal worth up to £89million(!).

Mudryk looked raw in his early appearances and over time struggled to show more than the odd flash of his talent.

He’d notched 10 goals and 11 assists in 73 appearances for the club, but he’d been dropped to more of a fringe role – starts mostly in the cup competitions – under Maresca before he was provisionally suspended by the FA in December 2024 after an adverse finding in a urine test.

Nearly eighteen months later and we’ve finally got news on that front. Mudryk has lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a four‑year drugs ban imposed by the FA.

What a mess.

Noni Madueke

Five days after getting Mudryk over the line, Chelsea further bolstered their attack by signing highly-rated England youth international Madueke from PSV.

Twenty goals and nine assists from 92 games wasn’t an especially great return, so pocketing a small profit when they sold him to Arsenal represented decent business.

Little the winger has done for Mikel Arteta’s Gunners will make them look back with any regrets. But essentially reinvesting that cash into the signing of Jamie Gittens is a decision that hasn’t aged well.

Malo Gusto

Reece James’ injury issues and ability to play in midfield have given the France international plenty of playing opportunities, including as a starter in Chelsea’s 3-0 Club World Cup final victory over PSG – the lone shining moment of an otherwise erratic BlueCo era.

Gusto isn’t spectacular, but he’s been a solid enough addition to the squad. He’s played over a hundred games and doesn’t appear to be heading anywhere anytime soon.

At £30million, he’s been a decent value, sensible signing. Chelsea could’ve done with a few more of those in the past few years.

Enzo Fernandez

Mudryk somehow wasn’t even Chelsea’s biggest signing of that January window.

Fernandez had only been at Benfica for half a season, but he’d excelled, and was particularly eye-catching in Argentina’s World Cup triumph the month before.

Eventually, the will-he-won’t-he saga ended on deadline day, when the Blues met his release clause and shelled out a British transfer record £106million for his signature.

The 25-year-old has racked up over 150 appearances for the Blues and gradually made people forget about the fee.

He remains contracted until 2032, but his future has been thrown into doubt after his recent comments about Madrid.

We can see him leaving if Chelsea don’t get into the Champions League, but recouping anything like the money they signed him for will be considerably easier said than done. Snookered?

Jimmy-Jay Morgan

Call this one your bonus ball.

Ten days after the winter window closed, Chelsea signed teenage prospect Morgan from Southampton for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £3million.

The attacker spent two years developing his skills in the club’s youth ranks before senior experience out on loan at Gillingham and Peterborough.

He’s yet to play for his parent club and might never will, but a host of Championship sides are said to be monitoring his progress after an eye-catching loan at Posh. The 20-year-old has 12 goals in League One this season.