Big-spending Chelsea aiming to ride Club World Cup wave into new season

LONDON – Chelsea want to start the new season with a spring in their step after winning the inaugural Club World Cup in July and bolstering their already huge squad with another string of new young players.

The club’s American owners are aiming to build on coach Enzo Maresca’s first season at Stamford Bridge when the Blues finished fourth in the Premier League, a gaping 15 points below champions Liverpool but enough for a Champions League spot.

Fans and players are also hoping that the momentum generated by the Club World Cup triumph, rounded off in style with a 3-0 drubbing of European champions Paris Saint-Germain in the final, will carry over into the domestic campaign.

“I said at the start of this tournament that our plan is to win it and people looked at me as if I was crazy,” defender Levi Colwill told reporters after the victory over PSG in July.

“I’m going to say the exact same thing now going into the Premier League and Champions League. I think we’re ready.”

But a knee injury suffered in training has now sidelined Colwill for much, if not all, of the new season and will raise fears among Chelsea fans about further injuries given the short recovery time from the summer’s exertions.

Maresca will need to find a way to lighten the load on key players such as Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in midfield, left-back Marc Cucurella and midfielder Cole Palmer, the four players who made the most appearances for Chelsea last season.

With the exception of the indefatigable Cucurella, they were spared many of the matches in Uefa’s third-tier Conference League competition, which Chelsea also won, beating Real Betis 4-1 in the final in May.

But they will not be given many nights off in the elite Champions League this season.

Joining Maresca’s group of core players are high-profile attackers in the shape of Brazil’s Joao Pedro and England’s Liam Delap, backed up by new winger Jamie Gittens, signed respectively from Brighton & Hove Albion, Ipswich Town and Borussia Dortmund.

Brazilian playmaker Estevao Willian – who scored a consolation goal for Palmeiras against Chelsea in the Club World Cup and already has five caps for Brazil at the age of 18 – will begin his Premier League apprenticeship under Palmer.

Netherlands defender Jorrel Hato will be an option to replace the injured Colwill in central defence or give Cucurella a break at left-back, having played in both positions for Ajax Amsterdam.

All of the new arrivals are either teenagers or in their early 20s – Pedro is the oldest at 23 – as the club double down on their strategy of buying young talent. Chelsea had youngest average starting XI ever recorded in a Premier League last season.

The Blues are also reportedly seeking to sign winger Alejandro Garnacho from Manchester United and RB Leipzig’s Dutch midfielder Xavi Simons. British media have also said PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma could be on their list too.

To offset the cost of adding to a squad bigger than that of any of their main rivals, the club have raised about £200 million (S$346 million) by selling players including goalkeepers Djordje Petrovic and Kepa Arrizabalaga to Bournemouth and Arsenal, wingers Noni Madueke and Joao Felix to Arsenal and Al-Nassr, midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Everton and striker Armando Broja to Burnley.

Striker Nicolas Jackson, defenders Axel Disasi and Ben Chilwell and winger Raheem Sterling may also leave before the start of the new season, further helping to offset the cost of the summer’s shopping spree.

The Club World Cup prize money of around £85 million will also be a big help for Stamford Bridge’s money men as they try to keep the big-spending Blues on the right side of financial rules.

Chelsea are also reportedly close to signing a new shirt sponsorship deal that could be bumped up in value by their success in the United States over the summer. REUTERS