It has not been the start to the season that many Chelsea fans were hoping for in the summer.
Enzo Maresca’s side are not necessarily playing poorly, but as things stand, they are ninth in the Premier League and have lost three of their last five in the competition.
The good news is that they have progressed to the next round of the League Cup, and Jamie Gittens finally put in a sensational performance against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
His three goal involvements in that game should take some of the heat off him, although with him starting to perform, another summer signing is looking even more perplexing, a signing who could be the new Jadon Sancho.
Sancho's record at Chelsea
Contrary to what many non-Chelsea fans believe, the Blues did, at one point, intend to sign Sancho upon the completion of his loan last season.
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The deal they agreed with Manchester United the previous summer included an obligation to buy for £25m or a fee of £5m to send him back, and so initially, the club looked to keep him on a permanent basis.
However, according to reports, the reason they eventually paid to send him back to Old Trafford was because the Englishman refused to accept a pay cut to his massive weekly wage of up to £300k-per-week.
Such an astronomical salary would have been a ludicrous waste of money, as while the former Borussia Dortmund star had his moments here and there, he never blew anyone away during his time at Stamford Bridge.
For example, in 41 appearances across all competitions, the 25-year-old was only able to score five goals and provide ten assists.
That comes out to an average of a goal involvement every 2.73 games, which is hardly the output of someone who can demand the wages he did.
Moreover, those numbers start to look even worse when you dig a little deeper.
Games
41
Goals
5
Assists
10
Goal Involvements per Match
0.36
For example, two of his goals and five of his assists came in the Conference League, and while it was great that the club won the competition, the opposition they faced to do so were subpar at best.
In all, while it seemed like a good idea at the time, signing Sancho on loan last season was probably not worth it for Chelsea, and it looks like they made a similar mistake this summer.
Chelsea's Sancho repeat
While they haven’t all settled in just yet, it would be fair to say that Chelsea made several quite exciting signings this summer.
However, one signing that baffled fans and pundits alike at the time, and remains even more confusing, is that of Facundo Buonanotte.
The Blues signed the Argentine ace from Brighton & Hove Albion on a season-long loan with no option or obligation to buy, and while it’s not a terrible signing, there are a few reasons which make it a poor one.
For example, and this is a crucial one, he didn’t exactly light the world alight last season.
In his 35 appearances for Leicester City, the supposedly “magnificent” youngster, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, scored six goals and provided three assists, with seven of those goal involvements coming in the league.
Such a middling return just makes the Blues’ decision to bring him to the club on a short-term basis all the more baffling, as it’s not like he was an output machine last year.
This leads to the second problem with the move, which is that, if he’s only meant to play the less important games, why couldn’t the club give their own academy products that chance?
Surely it makes more sense to build up the experience of your own prospects over that of Brighton’s.
Finally, when he has actually played for Maresca, he’s not impressed.
In his five appearances thus far, the Pérez-born gem has scored a single goal, and that came against the mighty Lincoln City in the League Cup.
Ultimately, Buonanotte’s lack of impact last season, his underwhelming displays so far this season, and the fact that he could be blocking the pathway for a Cobham graduate just make his loan move more baffling with every passing gameweek.
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