No club has been as active in the transfer market as Chelsea in recent years.
Since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed the takeover of the club three years ago, the Blues have signed over 40 first-team players costing in excess of £1bn.
Some of these signings have proved to be major successes, some have come and gone without a trace, while others have proved to be a massive waste of money, with one current squad member, who arrived just last summer, proving to be very reminiscent of, arguably, Chelsea’s worst-ever signing; Danny Drinkwate.
Danny Drinkwater's Chelsea career
Drinkwater will always be remembered in history as a key figure in Leicester City’s momentous Premier League title triumph of 2015/16.
He started 35 league games that season, forming a partnership alongside N’Golo Kanté that many, including Bleacher Report labelled ‘formidable’.
A year later, Drinkwater was reunited with Kanté at Chelsea, the Blues paying a reported £35m to secure his services, but it’s safe to say this move did not pay off, and the table below helps support this assertion.
Appearances
23
Starts
12
Minutes
1,181
Goals
1
Matches an unused sub
12
Matches not in the squad
118
The England international’s final appearance for Chelsea came in the 2018 Community Shield, never seen again in blue after that, spending brief loan spells with Burnley, Aston Villa, Kasımpaşa and Reading, before retiring back in October 2023.
Four Four Two Magazine believes Drinkwater to be Chelsea’s worst-ever signing, noting that few players have ever endured such a career ‘nosedive’, but is a current member of the Blues’ squad in danger of repeating this miserable drop-off?
Chelsea's latest big-money flop
Last summer, Chelsea signed the lesser-spotted Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City for a reported fee of £30m, thereby reuniting with manager Enzo Maresca who, according to Jacob Steinberg of the Guardian, viewed him as an ‘ideal fit for Chelsea’s style of play’, forecasting he would be a ‘key player’.
Maresca also described the midfielder as “fantastic”, backing him to become an “important” figure.
Well, fair to say, this has not transpired, as the table below outlines.
Appearances
28
14th
Total minutes
1,564
15th
Total starts
17
15th
PL minutes
254
22nd
PL starts
2
2nd
UECL minutes
1,105
1st
UECL starts
12
1st
Total goals
3
12th
Total assists
3
16th
As the table outlines, Dewsbury-Hall has been nothing more than a bit part player in the Premier League this season, starting just two matches, while seeing a miserly 254 minutes on the field, which is fewer than João Félix and Axel Disasi, both of whom were allowed to leave on loan in January.
In the Conference League however, it’s been a completely different story, considering he has started 12 of the Blues’ 13 fixtures to date, introduced at half time of the other, scoring three times, on target during home wins over Gent, Shamrock Rovers and København.
Nevertheless, the 26-year-old surely cannot be happy with this limited role, hence why Pete O’Rourke of Football Insider has reported that he will be ‘available for transfer’, while Ciaran McCarthy of TEAMtalk adds that the Blues, rather optimistically, will ‘demand’ to recoup the £30m paid for him last summer.
Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian believes Dewsbury-Hall will simply never get enough opportunities at Chelsea, so must therefore leave to avoid further stunted development, and the Blues should look to cash in on their depreciating second version of Dewsbury-Hall as soon as possible.
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