Athletic: Chelsea’s January plans focus on deals “in advance” rather than instant upgrade | OneFootball

After a serious of historically busy windows, one would be forgiven for thinking that Chelsea are on course to spend more money again next month when January trading begins.

But according to Simon Johnson of the Athletic – who is always plugged in on what the Blues intend to do – that’s not the case. In fact, that makes a lot of sense if you look at their squad. There’s a full A team and a full B team, and there are already barely enough minutes to go around.

There’s certainly no need to add to the group – and given so many of them were signed in the last 24 months, selling them on already is a challenge if you don’t want to take a loss.

So this January will be very quiet – although Johnson does make one suggestion of the business that could be done:

“Chelsea have not ruled out doing anything altogether in January, although that includes the possibility of doing a deal in advance with the following summer in mind. It is a practice they are comfortable with having done so before.”

Chelsea can look long term and big picture with talented squad in place

Konstantinos Karetsas playing for KRC Genk.

So with a solid squad in place, the sporting structure have the advantages of being able to look further ahead at the big picture, meaning they can be more opportunistic and lean into their habit of acquiring players to arrive in the future.

Aaron Anselmino, Estevao Willian, Kendry Paez and Mike Penders are all due to arrive next summer, with Jadon Sancho’s loan becoming permanent too. So before any other January moves are made, that will have to be considered.

Looking even further ahead, a move for a wonderkid like Konstantinos Karetsas for 2026 is the of thing that the club might be more interested in.