Chelsea insiders are anticipating a busy summer transfer window with potential incomings in every outfield department after what turned into a sleepy January.
Having lost out on Jeremy Jacquet, the 20-year-old centre back who signed a £60million pre-agreement with Liverpool late in the window, the Blues remain in the market for a defender.
They did not hastily switch their deadline-day focus to other contenders, such as Como’s Jacobo Ramon or Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi or other players pitched to them by intermediaries, as Confidential understands the desire was not as strong as it was for Jacquet.
Instead, they recalled Senegal centre back Mamadou Sarr from his loan at BlueCo sister club Strasbourg and he is now set to face Hull City in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday in what will be his first appearance since a brief cameo at the Club World Cup.
Rosenior will not reveal his lineup to the players until the day before Friday’s FA Cup tie at Hull, but my suspicion is we will see Sarr starting at the MKM Stadium. Sarr will have trained for nearly two weeks before the trip north, and played under Rosenior at Strasbourg.
Both Sarr and Jorrel Hato were sent to warm up when Andrey Santos picked up a problem away at Wolves on Saturday, with Rosenior ultimately opting to bring on the latter. Because of the way the Leeds game unfolded on Tuesday, Sarr never got his chance to come on.
Chelsea recalled Senegal centre back Mamadou Sarr from his loan at BlueCo sister club Strasbourg in January and he is now set to face Hull City in the FA Cup fourth round on Friday
Former Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez (left) is not on Chelsea’s list this summer despite numerous reports linking him with a move to Stamford Bridge
Chelsea also have midfield and attacking candidates in mind for the summer. They were open to accelerating that interest in January if the opportunity arose, but it did not.
The Blues have been long-term admirers of Adam Wharton at Crystal Palace and linked with Elliot Anderson at Nottingham Forest – two Premier League clubs with whom they have a healthy relationship.
However, it remains to be seen if Chelsea would be willing to spend big again on the midfield position, as they did with Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez, or if they feel it is wiser to chase a target who would cost less with the potential for his value to increase.
Naturally, secrecy surrounds names of targets as Chelsea do not want to upset the clubs they currently play for, though Confidential understands Julian Alvarez is not among them right now despite the Atletico Madrid forward being heavily linked.
Why Leeds leveller stood
Confidential can confirm Chelsea and the PGMOL have been in contact since Tuesday night’s disappointing draw with Leeds, with the conversation described as civil, respectful and as part of maintaining a positive working relationship.
John Brooks is set to referee Brentford-Arsenal tomorrow as planned with it appearing the PGMOL are comfortable with his VAR call to allow Leeds’ leveller to stand versus Chelsea, despite complaints that Jayden Bogle handled the ball in the build-up before Noah Okafor tapped in.
Per the Premier League’s current set of laws, only the actual scorer is penalised, regardless of whether his handball was accidental or deliberate. That meant VAR Brooks had to decide whether Bogle’s handball was intentional in order to gain an advantage, and he did not see it as a clear and obvious reason to challenge referee Rob Jones’ on-field decision to give the goal.
It is a strange quirk of the rulebook that Josh Acheampong and Co would have been better served allowing Bogle to score himself. Because it was Okafor who scored, it stood. The PGMOL are not revealing whether they think it was a right or wrong call. Brooks remains in line to oversee Arsenal’s trip to Brentford.
Noah Okafor taps in Leeds’ equaliser on Tuesday after the mother of all penalty-box scrambles
After venting his frustration in an interview with TNT Sports, Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior toned down his complaints regarding the handball by the time he came in to see us at his post-match press conference. Instead, he highlighted his players’ naivety.
‘They think it’s a handball, we switch off, we don’t clear the ball, they score,’ Rosenior said, with Trevoh Chalobah one of those holding his arm in the air rather than having an impact.
Why Acheampong didn’t go on loan
Acheampong faced criticism for failing to clear the danger when it looked like he had the chance to do so as Leeds scored their equaliser. There is a fair conversation to be had regarding whether a loan this season would have benefitted the 19-year-old defender from their Cobham academy.
Getting those mistakes out of your system – and more importantly learning from them – is a key element to those moves. Hell, I remember being told that when I was sent on loan way back when I first joined the Mail back in 2014 as I had a six-month temporary stay at a regional newspaper.
However, it was agreed in January that it would be best for Acheampong’s progress for him to stay with Chelsea’s first team.
The player and his family stressed they wanted that also, with all parties aligned on the decision to turn down the loan proposals. Acheampong has made 20 appearances for Chelsea this season in total, across all four competitions they are involved in.
Acheampong will learn from what happened versus Leeds, even if he was far from the only one at fault for the equaliser.
After Hull, Rosenior will finally have a week without a midweek match, giving him time to work with his players on the training pitch in the build-up to taking on Burnley at Stamford Bridge.
Josh Acheampong will learn from what happened versus Leeds, even if he was far from the only one at fault for the equaliser
Blues sweat on Cucurella
Chelsea are still sweating on the scans from Marc Cucurella’s hamstring injury after he was forced out of their 2-2 draw with Leeds at half-time, with the club hoping for positive news.
He will not make the FA Cup trip to Hull on Friday – Jorrel Hato was bound to start anyway – but the Blues are waiting to see how long they will be without their influential left back.
It could have been Blue
News of Thomas Frank and Roberto De Zerbi leaving their clubs on the same day took me back to May 2024 when Chelsea were searching for a successor to Mauricio Pochettino.
They narrowed down their managerial shortlist to four candidates: Frank, De Zerbi, Kieran McKenna, and Enzo Maresca, who wound up winning the race to become Blues boss.
So there is a loose Chelsea link to the dismissals by Tottenham and Marseille, and we may even see Pochettino returning to Spurs this summer if they appoint an interim for this season.
Roberto De Zerbi (left) and Thomas Frank (centre) both lost their jobs on Wednesday – reminding me of when they were both on Chelsea’s list to replace Mauricio Pochettino
BlueCo’s trademark move
One of the Chelsea-associated companies owned by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali is called BlueCo Data Limited, and Confidential can reveal they have submitted a new trademark application for ‘NoEra Sports Analytics’ with the Intellectual Property Office.
Cole takes it out on Confidential!
It was somewhat hazardous sitting behind Joe Cole in the Stamford Bridge press box as Leeds mounted their comeback from two goals down to draw.
The Chelsea great, working for TNT Sports on the night, was giving the seat in front of Confidential an almighty whack when his former team made mistakes.
A fair few fans in the stands felt the same way as Cole, given the defensive errors and Cole Palmer’s uncharacteristic miss deep into stoppage time.
At home, Chelsea have now dropped points from winning positions versus: Leeds (2), Bournemouth (2), Arsenal (2), Sunderland (3), Aston Villa (3) and Brighton (3).
