The international break is just 48 tedious hours away from ending for Chelsea fans, and that means we can return to talking about some actual football rather than just transfers and ownership and other speculation.
But there’s no denying this fortnight (and a bit) without matches has given us plenty of food for thought about this summer. There’s been two signings confirmed, lots of huge Club World Cup news, and some insight into our plans in goal. Players we’ve got on loan (particularly those at Strasbourg) have continued to shine, and some showed good form on international duty.
Our writer Simon Phillips accordingly made his predictions about what our summer business would be. You can read his predictions in full here.
Chelsea could go English for 3 biggest summer additions
Phillips went along with the widely published line from various sources that our priorities for this summer are a striker, a right footed left winger, and a central defender.
His prediction is that Djordje Petrovic returns from Strasbourg to compete to play in goal again, meaning no new stopper comes in.
He reckons Marc Guehi is the most likely target in central defence, as an experienced Premier League player and an increasingly affordable transfer given his contract situation.
Out wide he sees us buying Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund, perhaps using Jadon Sancho as some ort of makeweight in return.
Then in the grand prize – the striker question – he sees us going domestic again and signing Liam Delap. He says that “Delap to Chelsea feels inevitable,” and even thinks the deal is “done, pretty much ready for the window to open.”
Could we even see the 22 year old playing for us in the Club World Cup in just 2 months? It’s perfectly possible.
