Lukaku to Thiago Silva via Fernandez, Pulisic: Ranking last 50 signings made by Chelsea

Chelsea have made some suspect signings since Todd Boehly bought the club, though there were plenty of terrible purchases in the Roman Abramovich era. Including every new face who has joined this summer, here is a ranking of Chelsea’s last 50 signings.

Jorginho and Danny Drinkwater were among those taken out with Enzo Maresca’s first signings chucked in. Rob Green, you’re next, buddy.

The numbers in brackets next to the transfer fees are where they were placed when this list was created in February 2023, or where they were placed when added in an update since.

Chelsea’s last 50 signings ranked

50) Romelu Lukaku (£99.8m) (50)
The worst of the lot is the Blues’ record signing. Lukaku was signed off the back of a historic campaign with Inter and hit the ground running with a brilliant performance on his second Chelsea debut as he made Arsenal defender Pablo Mari look like a little boy.

It then all went a bit Pete Tong. A controversial interview in which he explained how much he loved Inter and how playing under Thomas Tuchel was not what he expected went down as you’d expect. It was never the same after that.

After a season on loan back at Inter, Lukaku returned to Cobham as an outcast under new manager Mauricio Pochettino. After being left in transfer limbo for the majority of the summer window, the experienced striker joined Roma on loan for the year. He is currently in talks over another exit. Hopefully it will be a permanent one this time.

49) Kalidou Koulibaly (£33.6m) (39)
Koulibaly made a mug of this guy by moving to the Premier League for a single, terrible season before Chelsea got bailed out by Al Hilal.

48) Mykhaylo Mudryk (£62m) (23)
Mudryk has been very poor for Chelsea after joining with high expectations on the back of some tantalising transfer drama between the Blues and Arsenal, who will probably sign him for £40m next year.

47) Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£10.6m) (38)
Sticking with shocking signings from Boehly’s first summer window, Aubameyang joined from Barcelona for not an awful lot of money and still somehow failed to live up to the price tag. He joined Marseille after a dismal year at the Bridge. That number nine shirt really is cursed .

46) Rob Green (free) (44)
Green was a bit of a meme during his time at Chelsea. He will only be remembered for celebrating the Blues’ Europa League final victory against London rivals Arsenal.

45) Marcus Bettinelli (free) (42)
Bettinelli was signed for nothing and has only played once for the club, so it is hard to criticise him.

44) Saul Niguez (£4.4m loan fee) (37)
Chelsea love an extortionate loan fee. One of the worst-ever deals was Radamel Falcao’s move to Stamford Bridge, but that transfer was too long ago for this list.

Saul joined with a big reputation and was a top-class midfielder at one point. He signed for the Blues already past his best even at the age of 26 and was hooked at half-time on his debut. It didn’t get much better from there.

43) Gonzalo Higuain (£6.9m loan fee) (36)
Speaking of terrible loan deals with big fees… Higuain scored five goals in 18 matches for the Blues. Even if it was a bit late in the day, it was nice to see him play in Our League.

42) Joao Felix (£11m loan fee) (32)
Felix joined for the second half of 2022/23 with Boehly forking out an extortionate £11m loan fee and covering the player’s £8m salary. The 24-year-old did not join permanently after an underwhelming stint under Graham Potter and Frank Lampard. He has recently experienced the same outcome with Barcelona.

👉 More: Joao Felix below only one huge flop in 15 most expensive loan players in history

41) Diego Moreira (free) (36)
Signed for nothing in the summer, Moreira spent the first six months of last season on loan at Lyon. It did not go well for him.

40) Malang Sarr (free) (18)
Sarr has not impressed but was signed for nothing. He is somehow still employed by Chelsea. Amazing, isn’t it? Even Mauricio Pochettino had no clue who he was when asked about him during pre-season last year.

39) Kepa Arrizabalaga (£72m) (40)
Kepa looked alright in 22/23, but he is still pretty unreliable and looks nowhere near a £72m goalkeeper. It is hard to envision him playing for Chelsea again after his loan spell at Real Madrid. This deal will forever be remembered as a colossal failure.

38) Omari Kellyman (£19m) (NE)
We are still wondering what in the PSR went on here. Prove us wrong, kid.

37) Deivid Washington (£13.7m) (35)
Boehly has loved investing in young Brazilians. Let’s wait and see if it is a good transfer policy.

36) Timo Werner (£47m) (28)
Darwin Nunez and Timo Werner may be the exact same player. Whenever Darwin has a poor game in front of goal people say, ‘He is making all of the right runs, he will come good soon’. People said the exact same thing about Werner, who spent the second half of last season on loan at Tottenham and is back for more ahead of 24/25.

The German missed more big chances for Chelsea in two years than I have had hot dinners in 29.

35) David Datro Fofana (£10.6m) (20)
‘Can anyone else see Fofana being someone who plays four times for Chelsea before leaving for £2.5m in 2026?’ were our initial words on Fofana following his arrival in January 2023. The only mistake will probably be giving him as many as three years at Chelsea. He currently has four appearances for the Blues and is expected to leave this summer.

34) Christian Pulisic (£56.7m) (27)
‘The LeBron James of soccer’ definitely boosted Chelsea’s American fandom. That is probably the only good thing you can say about this deal.

A move to AC Milan has done his career the world of good. He is flying in Italy.

33) Gabriel Slonina (£8m) (14)
Some Chelsea fans like Slonina but seeing him move to KAS Eupen on loan and Djordje Petrovic joining from New England Revolution was not a good sign. Surely he will be sold this summer. Another loan would be pointless.

32) Romeo Lavia (£52.9m) (17)
£53m is a lot of money to spend on a teenager, but Chelsea clearly have a lot of faith in young Lavia, who did enjoy a stellar 22/23 in a poor Southampton team. Lavia was injured all of last season, except for 32 minutes of a match against Crystal Palace. Not ideal.

31) Marc Cucurella (£57.6m) (41)
Cucurella’s 2021/22 campaign with Brighton was absolutely brilliant. He quickly adapted to Premier League football after a £16m move from Getafe but couldn’t quickly adapt to life at Stamford Bridge. After being useless for a whole season, Cucurella improved.

His performances for Spain at Euro 2024 are doing a lot heavy lifting in regards to his placing here. He needs to show that for his club now and he will continue to climb.

30) Hakim Ziyech (£35.4m) (21)
Chelsea fans seem to love or hate Ziyech. Either way, he was not great for the Blues after a brilliant spell with Ajax.

29) Lesley Ugochukwu (£23.1m) (25)
Ugochukwu is a promising midfielder but is behind Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Andrey Santos, Enzo Fernandez, Conor Gallagher and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in the pecking order.

28) Renato Veiga (£11.7m) (NE)
Chelsea’s addiction to signing central defenders needs to be studied.

27) Raheem Sterling (£50m) (26)
Sterling has been bitterly disappointing since leaving Manchester City but he hasn’t turned rubbish overnight. There is still a debate for him getting in Chelsea’s strongest XI.

26) Marc Guiu (£5.1m) (NE)
The fact there wasn’t much of a hullabaloo over his Barcelona exit makes us think he won’t become a world-beater at Stamford Bridge. We will have to wait and see, like with every other 2024 summer signing.

25) Willian Estevao (£29m) (NE)
Out of every Brazilian teenager Chelsea have decided to invest in, there is no doubt that Estevao has the highest expectations. He doesn’t get called ‘Messinho’ for nothing, surely…

29) Andrey Santos (£11m) (19)
The Brazilian joined Nottingham Forest on loan last summer but couldn’t get any game time and was shipped out to sister club Strasbourg in January. His time in France was very useful as he displayed his talent under Patrick Vieira. Not a bad mentor for a centre-midfielder, that.

23) Robert Sanchez (£19.6m) (13)
We called it and it happened. Sanchez is a decent enough ‘keeper but he will always be remembered for being dropped for Jason Steele at Brighton.

22) Tosin Adarabioyo (free) (NE)
He cost nothing and has plenty of Premier League experience. However, we are not sure he is a game-changer or even gets into Enzo Maresca’s strongest XI.

21) Carney Chukwuemeka (£16m) (15)
There was lots of interest in Chukwuemeka with Chelsea winning the race ahead of the likes of Borussia Dortmund. With so many attacking youngsters on the Blues’ books, it is unclear if their pathway is the best for someone of this player’s potential.

20) Noni Madueke (£30.8m) (33)
Chelsea really did not have to make this signing, nevertheless, Madueke has arguably produced more than any other new signing in a dismal 22/23 campaign. It feels like his long-term future is not at the Bridge, if truth be told.

19) Nicolas Jackson (£31.5m) (20)
Jackson has shown promise in his early days at Chelsea but does not appear to be the out-and-out No. 9 this team needs so badly. He runs the channels very well and can show moments of excellence with the ball at his feet but Pochettino needs a ruthless striker and it is clear Jackson is not that guy .

18) Kendry Paez (£17m) (NE)
It is not just Brazil that Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are obsessed with but South America in general.

Paez – who turned 17 in May – is another with huge expectations and out of every teenager recently bought by Chelsea, we are predicting him to go the furthest. He already has 12 caps for Ecuador!

Both he and Estevao join Chelsea next year.

17) Malo Gusto (£26.7m) (17)
Chelsea really needed to sign a new right-back/right-wing-back given Reece James’ injuries problems and they did just that in January 2023, agreeing to bring in Gusto from Lyon at the end of 22/23.

Gusto was below average at the start of last season but came into his own eventually. His Carabao Cup final performance was one to forget, though.

16) Moises Caicedo (£98.9m) (12)
Caicedo is young, yet a brilliant, Premier League-proven midfielder. But blimey, £99m? That is a lot of wonga. The pressure is on and so far he has underwhelmed. It is not a good sign that his transfer fee is mentioned every time he plays.

👉 F365Skive: Name the 16 stars who moved for British transfer record deals in the Prem era…

15) Benoit Badiashile (£33.7m) (22)
21-year-old Badiashile was signed in January 2023 for quite a lot of money, becoming the fourth defender Chelsea bought in 22/23.

14) Axel Disasi (£38.3m) (19)
Chelsea bloody love a French centre-back, don’t they? Disasi seems like a competent defender, which is always ideal. Is he better than Benoit Badiashile, Levi Colwill, and Wesley Fofana, though? You can decide…

13) Djordje Petrovic (£12m) (24)
Petrovic has shown in his time in the starting XI that he is better than Robert Sanchez. The No. 1 spot is up for grabs and new head coach Enzo Maresca could be given a new goalkeeper this summer.

12) Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (£30m) (NE)
We like this signing, especially as Dewsbury-Hall thrived under Maresca at Leicester.

11) Wesley Fofana (£71m) (16)
There is being injury prone like Reece James (missing a few matches a little too often) and then there is being injury prone like Wesley Fofana (picking up serious injuries on an annual basis). It is less than ideal but if he can stay fit, the Frenchman can be a regular in the Chelsea defence for the next decade.

10) Denis Zakaria (£2.6m loan fee) (13)
Enough said.

9) Enzo Fernandez (£108m) (29)
There is no doubting Fernandez’s ability. He won the Young Player of the Tournament at the World Cup, playing a huge part in Argentina’s success in Qatar.

Like with Caicedo, the only doubt is the transfer fee. Fernandez is now the most expensive player in British football history. For that price he cannot afford many bad games. And in fairness, he hasn’t had many so far. Unfortunately, though, he hasn’t had too many outstanding games. And has lost some friends with his recent actions.

👉 Read next: Enzo Fernandez and Wesley Fofana bring out football’s inhibited racists

8) Christopher Nkunku (£51.1m) (6)
After scoring 70 goals and providing 56 assists in 172 games for RB Leipzig, Nkunku suffered an injury before the 23/24 season got underway. After returning, the Frenchman was unable to nail down a starting spot but the quality is there. Next season is a big one for Nkunku.

7) Omari Hutchinson (free) (24)
It was hard for Chelsea to go wrong signing Hutchinson on a free. It was also hard for them to make this signing a roaring success and they have. Not because he is thriving for them but because they recently sold him to Ipswich for £20m.

The standard is so remarkably low that a player with two appearances is seventh because Chelsea made a swift profit on him.

6) Kai Havertz (£71m) (12)
Havertz scored the only goal in the Champions League final against Manchester City in 2021 and without that strike his ranking here would be a lot worse. Another plus for Chelsea is that they sold Havertz for £64m after what was a bitterly disappointing three years in west London. It wasn’t transfer profit but it was a lot more than they would have dreamed of recouping.

5) Ben Chilwell (£44.5m) (8)
Chilwell has been a good signing for Chelsea, though fifth place flatters him. He has his useless teammates to thank for that.

4) Edouard Mendy (£21.2m) (5)
Mendy joined Chelsea in September 2020 and instantly improved a position that desperately needed to be addressed. Kepa Arrizabalaga was shifted to the bench for the Senegal goalkeeper – who looked steady from day one.

However, Mendy won the African Cup of Nations and returned to club duty with a permanent hangover. He was randomly error-prone and unreliable, leaving for Al Ahly last summer.

3) Mateo Kovacic (£40m) (4)
Kovacic is a wonderful, underrated, player. £40m at the time was a big fee for someone who barely played for Real Madrid, but Chelsea would have been silly not to pay it given the fact they were about to be placed under a transfer embargo.

The Croatian helped Chelsea win the Champions League and Europa League.

2) Cole Palmer (£40.3m) (23)
Palmer has been Boehly’s best signing by a country mile and quickly established himself as Mauricio Pochettino’s most important player.

On reflection, ranking him in 23rd last September looks harsh, but it was a pretty surprising signing and nobody saw his incredible form coming. He is a serious player and after inspiring the Young Lions to glory at the Under-21 Euros last year, Palmer played a big part in helping England reach the final of Euro 2024 this summer.

1) Thiago Silva (free) (2)
One of the best free transfers in Premier League history, Silva signed from Paris Saint-Germain and instantly improved Chelsea’s defence.

The experienced Brazilian helped deliver a second Champions League to Stamford Bridge and was remarkably consistent during his time in west London. A true legend.

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