The first thing to acknowledge is that there is time for Chelsea to make a success of this transfer window. It is the first week in July, not the last in August. Those within the club’s recruitment department can justifiably point to the late arrivals of David Luiz and Marcos Alonso last year, and the impact both players had on the team’s title success, as evidence that significant additions can be plucked from the ether right up to the cut-off.
And yet, not for the first time, they have made a rather undistinguished start in attempting to capitalise upon their status as champions. Suggestions Romelu Lukaku had broken off from a holiday to undertake a medical overseen by doctors dispatched by Manchester United to the University of Los Angeles, such a favourite pre-season training haunt of José Mourinho’s teams over the years, left the striker’s suitors in London winded. Perplexed even. All summer the assumption had been that the Belgian’s innate desire to return to Stamford Bridge would be key to securing him from Everton.
Related: Manchester United agree Romelu Lukaku fee with Everton
Why was a bid for Lukaku, a player the manager had made clear should be targeted, never submitted to Everton?
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