Despite being banned from doing transfer for a season and a half, Chelsea had no choice but to sell its best player, Eden Hazard when Real Madrid came calling.
Chelsea boss, Frank Lampard had to rely on the club academy products like Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, James Reece, and Mason Mount amidst other available first-team players.
Now that the embargo has been lifted, Lampard spent over 250m pounds to rejig his squad that will be playing in this year’s Champions League as well.
But the recent questions have been if the English club has now been able to sign a gamechanger like Hazard amongst the new recruit?
Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Kai Havertz, are among the top names brought with proven integrity from the former clubs. Can these turn ties around for the Blue?
Definitely, the new signings have brought in some improvement into the squad but they don’t look like gamechanger like Hazard. Maybe that will change well Ziyech starts showing the stuff he is made of on his return to full fitness.
How Eden Hazard became a game changer at Chelsea
Chelsea’s summer spending spree might have compensated for Hazard’s departure last year, as the Belgium star had established himself as one of Europe’s top players during his seven-year spell at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard took the Blues to fourth in 2019-20 despite a lack of new additions.
The winger, who is currently out injured at Madrid represented the Blues more than 350 times and lifted two Premier League and Europa League titles before making the moving to the Spanish side last year.
Other summer intakes at the club include Ben Chilwell, Edouard Mendy, Thiago Silva, and Malang Sarr.
Speaking on the splurge, Lampard said it was exactly what the club needed to boost their chances of finishing higher up the table this term after losing a player of Hazard’s caliber.
“For me we lost probably the best player in the league,” the manager told reporters. “We couldn’t do any business so the work we did was on the pitch last year.
“Teams that are striving to be in and around top six and upwards were spending last year, they were spending again this summer.
“They’ve had the opportunity with the players they bought last year to get them embedded into their teams and we’re dealing with teams above us, which is where we want to get to, where we are aspiring to get to, that have been building their squads for a long time.
“We want to build our squad. We missed two windows and now we come back in and we’ve brought players in with a view to improve us.”
He is therefore unfazed by the pressure to improve on last season, adding that the club intends to work and get to where it want to be as quick as possible.
“But we should have no problem with expectations. Why would you want to manage Chelsea or play for Chelsea without putting pressure on yourself to succeed or have expectations that come with that? It would be pointless to play for this club otherwise.
“I welcome expectations. We have to put them to the side, work hard, and try to live up to them.”
So far, Chelsea has garnered seven points from their first four Premier League matches of the season. They will be in action again on Saturday when they host Southampton.
So, let’s wait to see if the new signing will up their game and replicate Hazard’s form at the Bridge
