5 ways Chelsea can keep up with the Manchester clubs

#3. Spend big when they have to

Alvaro Morata was Chelsea's biggest summer signing in 2017

One criticism of Chelsea’s summer spending was that they simply didn’t spend quite enough to repair some of the holes in their squad. Sure, Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko all appear to be settling in well and Davide Zappacosta and Danny Drinkwater may well develop into hits in time. But in comparison to the insane spending of the Manchester sides, Chelsea’s summer was practically silent.

That didn’t sit well with Antonio Conte from most sources, and it probably didn’t sit well with Blues fans either. While Roman Abramovich was known in his early days as one of the biggest spending chairmen out there, in recent seasons he’s curbed his spending quite a lot.

That’s his prerogative, but if he wants Chelsea to keep up with the Manchester clubs then that needs to change. And realistically, would he be blowing his own money anyway? Probably not – Chelsea have enough revenue coming through from various sources to be able to spend big anyway.

While it’d be an excellent idea for Chelsea to make full use of their outstanding youth talent, they also can’t let the Manchester clubs shoot ahead by spending far more money. If Chelsea really want to keep up with them, then they’ve got to splash the cash on players in the same way they did around a decade ago, when Abramovich first came to the club.

And it’s no good using a lot of small packages to buy multiple players – I’m talking about potentially breaking the world transfer fee record – as Manchester United did last season – to buy the world’s best.