Chelsea have reasons behind doing transfer business in March – and want this to be a habit

When it comes to their transfer business in 2025, Chelsea do not intend to wait around.

Chelsea have already agreed deals with Portugal’s Sporting CP this month for midfielder Dario Essugo (joining this summer) and winger Geovany Quenda (arriving in 2026), but this is just the start of their quest to get things done early.

Agreeing to sign a player outside a transfer window when it is not a Bosman (players who are out of contract in the summer can open talks with a foreign club from January onwards) does happen in the sport, but it is unusual. Inevitably it provokes the question — why have Chelsea felt the need to do so and what are their intentions going forward?

In terms of this duo specifically, one of the reasons is fairly obvious. They did not want to be beaten to the acquisition by somebody else.

As The Athletic revealed, Chelsea faced stiff competition from Manchester United and a Premier League club currently in the top three for Quenda’s signature to highlight just two rivals for his signature. As for Essugo, Chelsea became aware of five to six other teams that were pursuing the 20-year-old and did not want to risk losing out on him either.

But Chelsea sources, who spoke to The Athletic under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, say that this is just one factor behind it. The club are aiming to get the majority of their business done, both ins and outs, by the end of June this year. That includes two of the most high-profile acquisitions — a centre-forward and a right-footed winger.

Chelsea feel they are in a good position to do this because they have been working on these deals, just like with Quenda and Essugo, in advance for months. A lot of planning is going into this as well as possible exits. The desire is to have a group of 23 to 24 outfield players who the club believe will be strong enough to compete in the Premier League, domestic cups and European competition should they qualify.

It is clearly ideal for every club to get their ins and outs done as early in the summer as possible so that a head coach has a settled squad with whom to work ahead of the new season. The more time a new player has to settle into a new environment the better. For example, Chelsea recognise that signing club-record buy Moises Caicedo, who joined from Brighton for £115million in mid-August 2023, after the first game of the season hurt the start to his Chelsea career.

Having unwanted players still hanging around is no good for anyone, either, and the distraction caused by all the talk surrounding the ‘bomb squad’ last summer was not ideal for new head coach Enzo Maresca.

The thinking is that sales will fund the purchase of a centre-forward and winger, while also being good for the books in general. Players will still be loaned out too. For example, Mathis Amougou is already being lined up to join Strasbourg.

But apart from Andrey Santos, who is going to be part of the first-team squad, Chelsea are confident they will be able to sell many of their current loanees because they have been benefiting from playing elsewhere.

Events of last summer have to leave a bit of a question mark over that, when you consider that unwanted trio Raheem Sterling, Armando Broja and Trevoh Chalobah only agreed loan deals at the end of August. Ben Chilwell ended up staying put until securing a loan to Crystal Palace in January.

But Chelsea believe they are in a better position than previous years and have done a lot more groundwork on exits in advance.

Signing players early gives Maresca more time to work with them (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Chelsea’s intention going forward is to get things done earlier in the summer windows anyway, but it is of particular importance this year because of their participation in the Club World Cup. This has been on their minds since last year.

Their first game is on June 16 — their new opponents are to be confirmed after Club Leon were removed from the competition by FIFA — and if they get to the final, their last fixture will be played on July 13.

Chelsea hope that they go on to lift the trophy but, whenever their participation ends, they will give their players three weeks off. With the next Premier League season starting on August 16, there will not be time for a full pre-season. They are thinking there will be, at most, one to two weeks to prepare.

So while Chelsea are treating the Club World Cup very seriously and want to win it, they are considering it like a pre-season camp, too. It is part of their preparation for 2025-26. That means the possibility of new signings being with the squad to train and learn Maresca’s system even though they won’t be involved in the games. Chelsea want them to be integrated.

Chelsea do not see this as a one-off and think they will be in a better position to do things earlier and earlier every year. The theory certainly sounds good.

Now it is a case of seeing whether everything they hope to achieve can be done in practice.

(Top photo: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images)