Chelsea trying to add ‘at least one more offensive player’, but not Romelu Lukaku — report

As we approach the final week of the summer transfer window, Chelsea’s total spending under the new ownership has dominated the discussion. Have you heard? Over a billion spent! Roman would be proud.

Alas, we still can’t buy a win. Roman would not be proud.

(Though obviously we’re building for a future of consistent winning, but that’s already far too much nuance. Doesn’t mean we’ll get there of course, but that’s the plan.)

But anyway, it sounds like we’re not quite done spending yet either, and according to the Telegraph, are expected to get “at least one more” player in to help the attack, which (still) seems to be scoring more injuries than goals.

That one player will not be Romelu Lukaku however, who’s had zero contact with the first-team and remains training with the under-21s while still hoping to engineer a move to Juventus. Chelsea are looking for that to be a permanent transfer, but Juventus want us to take Dušan Vlahović in return, and we don’t want that. Basically, that whole situation is unchanged for weeks now — a rare drama-free moment in Lukaku’s Chelsea career, in a way — and we have ten days to figure something out.

As far as who we might be trying to get, Brennan Johnson was mentioned yesterday but already debunked. Folarin Balogun? Arsenal apparently want more “around £50m” (as per the Evening Standard). Thankfully, we see that as “a big difference” from our own valuation of the 22-year-old, so might yet avoid overpaying in this situation.

Could we look towards an in-house solution? Armando Broja still hasn’t kicked a ball in anger in eight months. Mykhailo Mudryk hasn’t kicked a ball accurately in nearly as long. Ian Maatsen has been an afterthought after an excellent preseason. Christo Nkunku’s out until 2024. Noni Madueke’s back at least, but will take a bit to get going. Mason Burstow would surely be best served by a loan.

So I guess back to the market we go.