Little in life is certain but death and taxes… and a Chelsea spending splurge in the latest transfer window. Ever since Roman Abramovich acquired the club in 2003, and perhaps even more so since Todd Boehly took the reins in 2022, Chelsea haven’t been exactly shy in the transfer market. At the time of writing, the Blues have spent more than £600 million more than they’ve brought in from transfers under the American. And with the January 2026 window now open, it’s a good time to hypothesise about how Chelsea might splash the cash when they next get the chance.
Do Chelsea Need to Buy Any New Players?
Whether Chelsea actually need to bring any new faces to Stamford Bridge is probably a moot point. In general, when the transfer window opens, the Blues spend. Recent signings who have cost upwards of €30m include João Pedro, Jamie Gittens, Alejandro Garnacho, Estêvão, Jorrel Hato, and Liam Delap.
The jury is still undecided on whether the money has been well spent, but there have been positive signs from some of them, Estêvão and João Pedro in particular. The strategy of purchasing young, up-and-coming talent might well pay off financially, too, over the medium or long term.
🔵🇧🇷 Chelsea unveil Willian Estevão as new signing, one year after getting deal done with Palmeiras.
“It feels very rewarding to represent Chelsea, one of the biggest clubs in the world. I hope to help the team in the best way possible. I can’t wait”, says Estevão. pic.twitter.com/PdD9uBSVGr
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 5, 2025
Whether the Blues need to strengthen further may depend on their ambitions for the season. At the time of writing, they are not a million miles away from challenging for the title. Their 1-1 draw with Arsenal in November showed good intent, not least because they played the majority of the game with 10 men. But if the Blues want to sustain a challenge in the Premier League and the Champions League, there is one type of player who wouldn’t go amiss: an out-and-out goalscorer.
Goals Mean Glory
At the time of writing, Chelsea have scored an average of 1.68 goals per game in the Premier League. If they maintained that scoring rate for the whole season, they’d manage just 64 goals. No side has won the Premier League when scoring fewer than 83 goals since Leicester’s miracle campaign of 2015/15 (when they somehow took glory with just 68 goals). Here are the goalscoring averages of the EPL champions from the last few seasons:
- 2024/25 – Liverpool – 2.26 goals per game
- 2023/24 – Man City – 2.53 goals per game
- 2022/23 – Man City – 2.47 goals per game
- 2021/22 – Man City – 2.61 goals per game
- 2020/21 – Man City – 2.18 goals per game
- 2019/20 – Liverpool – 2.24 goals per game
In other words, if Chelsea don’t up their scoring rate, they won’t get close to winning the league this season. Of course, they might not even if they do score more, if they don’t keep things tight at the other end. But as things stand, they have the joint-fourth-best defensive record in the top flight, so we think the Blues board should focus on bringing in a proven goal-getter.
When Opportunity Knocks… Steal Liverpool’s Best Striker!
Once upon a time (well, in the 2010/11 season), Liverpool had a world-class striker called Fernando Torres. He had been the club’s leading scorer in two of the previous three seasons and was a fan favourite. When Chelsea came sniffing around in the transfer window of January 2011, however, Torres decided the grass was greener at Stamford Bridge and engineered a move to the Blues.
It didn’t work out brilliantly for either club. Liverpool replaced Torres with the perpetually injured Andy Carroll, while the Spaniard managed just 20 goals in 110 Premier League games for the Blues… but that’s beside the point. Could history be about to repeat itself?
Fast forward to the 2024/25 campaign, and Liverpool have a world-class striker called Mohamed Salah. He’s been the club’s leading scorer in each of the last eight seasons and the top scorer in the Premier League in four of those. For whatever reason, Salah has fallen out of favour at Liverpool, which might tempt Chelsea to make an audacious bid to bring the Egyptian back to Stamford Bridge.
He’s certainly a proven goalscorer in the EPL. Indeed, only three players have scored more Premier League goals than Salah: Wayne Rooney, Harry Kane, and Alan Shearer. The question is, would Liverpool let such a move take place, or would they rather cash in and ship him out to Saudi Arabia? We might find out in January.
More Realistic Goalscoring Options for Chelsea
One option, which Chelsea don’t often plump for, would be to make do with what they’ve already got. There’s little doubt that the Blues would have scored more goals if their talisman, Cole Palmer, hadn’t missed so many games through injury. The same could be said for Liam Delap, although he hasn’t really found his scoring touch as yet… which might encourage the club to dip into the transfer market.
As usual, when a transfer window approaches, Chelsea have been linked with several players, with the following all mentioned in the sports pages in recent days or weeks:
- Yan Diomande – winger, RB Leipzig
- Joaquin Panichelli – striker, Strasbourg
- Said el Mala – winger, Cologne
- Rodrigo Mendoza – midfielder, Elche
- Robinio Vaz – striker, Marseille
These would all fit the profile of most of the Blues’ recent signings: young, talented players who have the potential to develop into world beaters. But none would solve the immediate problem of needing to score more goals.
Of course, every side wants to sign a proven striker who will be all but guaranteed to score. They don’t grow on trees, though. And it is notoriously tough to acquire top-class players in the January window and there is a very real risk of Chelsea simply spending for the sake of it and not getting a solid return on their investment.
One player who might fit the bill could be former Brentford striker Ivan Toney, who is currently plying his trade in Saudi Arabia for Al-Ahli. At the time of writing, he’s scored 42 goals in 62 games in Saudi, and he’s still only 29 years old. If he wants to add to his seven England caps, he might just be tempted by a move back to the Premier League, not least with the World Cup taking place in the summer. The sticking point might be his club’s obvious reluctance to sell the player, but where there’s a will, there’s a way, and it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility that he moves to Chelsea before the window closes on a cut-price deal.
If the Blues decided they don’t want to splash a fortune on a new player, instead of a big money move they might opt for a loan option if they can find someone who could serve a purpose. Barcelona’s loan move for Marcus Rashford, for instance, has been working out well for the Catalan side and the player himself. Finding an attacker of sufficient quality with Premier League goalscoring prowess who is permitted to move to Chelsea could be a very tough task, however.