£36m Chelsea decisions expose ‘Achilles heel’ to leave no hope of PL title amid Carragher verdict

 Jamie Carragher is bang on with his assessment of Chelsea, who have no hope of winning the Premier League title for two clear reasons…

A few onlookers, including some of us at F365, got carried away after seeing Chelsea win the Club World Cup and suggested that they could end the 2025/26 season as Premier League champions.

However, the pre-season optimism surrounding Chelsea has swiftly subsided at the start of this campaign, with Enzo Maresca’s laughable disasterclass against Manchester United taking the sack conversation away from Ruben Amorim (for a little bit). 

Chelsea followed that up with a scare in the Carabao Cup against League One side Lincoln City, so the London outfit are under pressure to beat Brighton at home this weekend.

Ahead of this game, pundit Jamie Carragher has bemoaned Chelsea’s transfer business after they failed to fix their two “glaring flaws” in the summer amid £36m decisions on Mike Maignan and Gianluigi Donnarumma.

“The glaring flaws last season were in goal and at centre-half. Despite 12 new arrivals over the summer, those areas remain the Achilles’ heel,” Carragher said in his column for The Daily Telegraph.

“Chelsea were linked with AC Milan’s French keeper Mike Maignan, but the message was they were not prepared to pay more than £12m. Why not?

“Manchester City showed what ambitious clubs do when an obvious issue needs sorting out, signing Gianluigi Donnarumma [for around £26m].

“Why were Chelsea not part of the conversation for the PSG keeper? He could have been a transformative signing for them.”‘

He added: “Rather than focus on positions in need of urgent attention, Chelsea appear to be obsessed with collecting wingers.

“Jamie Gittens, youngster Estevao and Alejandro Garnacho all signed this summer. They have another winger arriving in the summer of 2026, having secured a £40m deal with Sporting Lisbon for teenager Geovany Quenda.

“Who among this season’s options will make way for him in 12 months’ time?

“With an imbalanced squad, there was no chance of Chelsea winning the league coming into this season, and Maresca already sounded realistic after last weekend’s defeat by Manchester United, suggesting it might be ‘impossible’ to catch Liverpool.”

Carragher’s breakdown of Chelsea’s business is pretty damning, but it’s hard to argue against it.

In the summer, the Blues moved to sort their striker problem with the signings of Joao Pedro and Liam Delap, though it was the case of one step forward and two steps back amid their refusal to sign a new No.1 goalkeeper and sufficiently bolster their defence.

Meanwhile, their insistence on signing winger after winger remains baffling, with these deals only sanctioned with a view to recouping extra cash rather than improving Maresca’s squad.

Chelsea have spent an absolute fortune since Todd Boehly’s takeover in 2022 and could have built a super-team in this time, though they are still lagging behind their rivals and won’t win the Premier League this season or next unless there is a fix of their “Achilles’ heel” with much-needed transfers.

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