There are numerous criticisms that can be levelled at Chelsea Football Club, but being boring isn’t one. The 2023-2024 season might well prove the point on that front, with the Blues starting the season pretty poorly, making it to the League Cup final, rallying towards the end of the campaign but still parting ways with the manager at the end of it all. There was a point in the season when some wondered whether Chelsea might end up in a relegation battle, but a sixth-place finish was their ultimate reward for Mauricio Pochettino being able to get the squad to gel and all pull in the same direction when it really mattered.
The London club also made it to the semi-final of the FA Cup, losing to Premier League champions Manchester City. The League Cup final was a repeat of the one from two years before when they faced Liverpool, but this time it was a stoppage time goal that saw the Merseyside club win rather than a penalty shootout. If supporters needed a sense of hope then it might have been found in the club’s performances towards the end of the season, winning five games in succession whilst scoring 14 goals and conceding just four. That hope was dashed, however, when Todd Boehly decided to part ways with Pochettino just when things were starting to work.
Transfers In
Chelsea continued to go big in the transfer market under Boehly during the 2023-2024 campaign, so here is a look at all of the players that the club brought in during the summer of 2023 and the winter of 2024. We will also say which club the player was signed from and, if we can find the information, roughly how much they paid for them:
| Player | Signed From | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Nicolas Jackson | Villarreal | £32 million |
| Christopher Nkunku | RB Leipzig | £52 million |
| Diego Moreira | Benfica | Free Transfer |
| Ângelo Gabriel | Santos | £13 million |
| Lesley Ugochukwa | Rennes | £23.2 million |
| Axel Disasi | Monaco | £38.8 million |
| Robert Sanchez | Brighton & Hove Albion | £25 million |
| Moisés Caicedo | Brighton & Hove Albion | £100 million |
| Roméo Lavia | Southampton | £53 million |
| Deivid Washington | Santos | £13.7 million |
| Đorđe Petrović | New England Revolution | £12.5 million |
| Cole Palmer | Manchester City | £40 million |
The club also brought Alex Matos from Norwich City to the Academy on a free transfer, whilst Ishé Samuels-Smith arrived from Everton for £4 million and Ollie Harrison joined from Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee. The same is true of Dujuan Richards, who was added to the Academy from Phoenix Academy.
Transfers Out
There were a number of players who departed Chelsea during the summer of 2023. As with the incomings, we will tell you where the players went after leaving Stamford Bridge and also how much Chelsea received as a fee, if that information is available to us:
| Player | Sold To | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Kalidou Koulibaly | Al-Hilal | £17 million |
| Mateo Kovačić | Manchester City | £25 million |
| Édouard Mendy | Al-Hilal | £16 million |
| Kai Havertz | Arsenal | £65 million |
| Ruben Loftus-Cheek | Milan | £15 million |
| Tiémoué Bakayoko | FC Lorient | Free Transfer |
| N’Golo Kanté | Al-Ittihad | Free Transfer |
| Mason Mount | Manchester United | £55 million |
| César Azpilicueta | Atlético Madrid | Free Transfer |
| Baba Rahman | PAOK | Free Transfer |
| Christian Pulisic | Milan | £17.1 million |
| Ethan Ampadu | Leeds United | £7 million |
| Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Marseille | Free Transfer |
| Callum Hudson-Odoi | Nottingham Forest | £5 million |
There were also 18 players that left the Academy in the summer, with 12 players sent out on loan. Eight Academy players enjoyed a loan in the summer. In the winter period, six first team players went out on loan, whilst three did so from the Academy. All told, the club spent £407.2 million and made back £236.4 million for a net total spend of £170.8 million.
2023-2024 Chelsea Squad
There were numerous changes and alterations to the Chelsea squad for the 2023-2024 season, with the following being what the first-team squad looked like for the campaign, based on players who made at least one Premier League appearance:
| Player | Number | Country | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Sánchez | 1 | Spain | Goalkeeper |
| Đorđe Petrović | 28 | Serbia | Goalkeeper |
| Axel Disasi | 2 | France | Defender |
| Marc Cucurella | 3 | Spain | Defender |
| Benoît Badiashile | 5 | France | Defender |
| Thiago Silva | 6 | Brazil | Defender |
| Trevoh Chalobah | 14 | England | Defender |
| Ben Chilwell | 21 | England | Defender |
| Reece James | 24 | England | Defender |
| Levi Colwill | 26 | England | Defender |
| Malo Gusto | 27 | France | Defender |
| Alfie Gilchrist | 42 | England | Defender |
| Josh Acheampong | 63 | England | Defender |
| Ian Maatsen | 29 | The Netherlands | Defender |
| Enzo Fernández | 8 | Argentina | Midfielder |
| Lesley Ugochukwu | 16 | France | Midfielder |
| Carney Chukwuemeka | 17 | England | Midfielder |
| Cole Palmer | 20 | England | Midfielder |
| Conor Gallagher | 23 | England | Midfielder |
| Moisés Caicedo | 25 | Ecuador | Midfielder |
| Cesare Casadei | 31 | Italy | Midfielder |
| Roméo Lavia | 45 | Belgium | Midfielder |
| Jimi Tauriainen | 49 | Finland | Midfielder |
| Alex Matos | 52 | England | Midfielder |
| Raheem Sterling | 7 | England | Forward |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | 10 | Ukraine | Forward |
| Noni Madueke | 11 | England | Forward |
| Nicolas Jackson | 15 | Senegal | Forward |
| Christopher Nkunku | 18 | France | Forward |
| Deivid Washington | 36 | Brazil | Forward |
| Armando Broja | 19 | Albania | Forward |
| Mason Burstow | 37 | England | Forward |
There were other players who made up the squad for cup matches that we haven’t included here because they didn’t make a Premier League appearance.
Kit & Sponsor
As is now the case for Chelsea, the club played the season in a home kit of blue shorts, blue shirt and white socks, with blue socks as an alternative. The kit was manufactured by Nike.
Interestingly, the club played the early stages of the season without a main shirt sponsor. This changed when Infinite Athlete came on board as the club’s main sponsor.
The away kit was dark blue, whilst the third kit was green.
The goalkeeper’s main kit was black with grey swirls, with the second one being yellow and the third being green. As with the home kit, they were produced by Nike and didn’t have a sponsor on them until a deal was signed with Infinite Athlete.