The 2022/23 season was the first one in charge of Chelsea for Boehly and Clearlake Capital, as they invested heavily in the squad to begin their restructuring from the bottom up.
Chelsea spent around £526.8m in the 2022/23 season, making 15 permanent signings, along with two loan signings.
Enzo Fernández
£106.8m
Wesley Fofana
£67.1m
Mykhailo Mudryk
£58.5m
Marc Cucurella
£54.5m
Raheem Sterling
£46.9m
Kalidou Koulibaly
£35m
Benoit Badiashile
£31.7m
Noni Madueke
£29.2m
Malo Gusto
£25m
Carney Chukwuemeka
£15m
Cesare Casadei
£12.4m
Andrey Santos
£10.4m
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang
£10m
David Datro Fofana
£10m
Gabriel Slonina
£7.5m
The biggest signing made that season was Enzo Fernández, who was signed from Benfica in the January window, joining for a fee of around £106.8m. The midfielder has since gone on to make 78 appearances for the Blues, scoring eight goals and providing 11 assists in 5,980 minutes played.
But it was a player who left during this season that could haunt the Blues in years to come, as he looks set to be another Callum Hudson-Odoi-type mistake.
Callum Hudson-Odoi's record at Chelsea
Hudson-Odoi emerged through the ranks at Chelsea, coming through the academy system, scoring 31 goals and providing 18 assists for the U18s, U19s, and U21 squad in a total of 61 games across the three academy teams.
His first sustained run in the senior team came under Maurizio Sarri, starting in Europa League games, impressing the manager and fans with his quality.
Unfortunately, that same season, Hudson-Odoi suffered an Achilles tendon rupture, keeping him out for 143 days, and stunting the brilliant development the youngster had been making so early in his career.
After that point, the Chelsea youngster struggled to get fully fit and return to the level he had previously shown, suffering more sporadic injuries, and finding himself in and out of the squad.
Hudson-Odoi made 126 appearances for Chelsea in total, scoring 16 goals and providing 21 assists. He was then sold in 2023 to Nottingham Forest for a measly £3m, which is already looking like a big mistake.
The Blues may well have had another prospect like Hudson-Odoi in the academy in 2022, but he was allowed to leave, and now he could be the latest error for Chelsea in the transfer market.
Why Tyler Dibling left Chelsea's academy
In 2022, Chelsea managed to secure the signing of 16-year-old at the time, Tyler Dibling from Southampton, for a fee of around £1.5m.
However, Dibling’s time at the club lasted only a matter of weeks as he quickly felt like “a small fish in a big pond” according to the reports, hindering him from showing his true character, and leading to him re-signing with Southampton on ‘significantly lower’ terms.
Whilst there isn’t much the Blues could have done, it could turn out to be a real error not finding a way to help Dibling settle, as he is already taking the Premier League by storm now at just 18 years of age, making 14 appearances so far this season, scoring once and assisting twice in 777 minutes.
The teenager’s superb performance this weekend in a 3-2 loss against Liverpool caught the eye, winning a penalty for the Saints, and starting the move for their second goal with a lovely switch of play.
Coincidentally, Fbref suggests that Dibling and Hudson-Odoi are ‘similar players’, so what makes the ex-Chelsea pair comparable, and how do they match up against each other in the metrics?
Dibling vs Hudson-Odoi comparison
Dibling was described as “creative” asset by scout Jacek Kulig recently, the same word that has been used to describe Hudson-Odoi in recent years, due to his ability to find his teammates with a variety of passes, and progress play with his quality dribbling ability.
Goals
0.11
0.19
Assists
0.22
0.00
xG
0.14
0.10
xAG
0.11
0.10
Progressive Carries
4.38
5.67
Progressive Passes
3.42
2.78
Shots Total
1.44
1.75
Key Passes
1.23
1.86
Shot-Creating Actions
3.84
4.43
Successful Take-Ons
2.33
1.86
Both players like to run at their man 1v1, looking to beat them and create something for their team. Dibling has done this in a more direct manner this season, averaging 2.33 take-ons per 90, whilst Hudson-Odoi has only averaged 1.86 per 90, sometimes slowing it down to keep possession and create from a slightly deeper area on the left.
The Forest winger has displayed a slightly higher level of creative actions, providing more shot-creating actions per 90 and making more key passes per 90, which goes hand in hand with his slightly slower and more intricate approach, compared to the direct style of Dibling.
The Southampton prodigy has ranked ahead of Hudson-Odoi in both assists per 90, and xAG per 90 (expected assists), which shows despite the latter’s extra creation numbers, Dibling has actually been slightly more effective in delivering output from those scenarios this season.
The main difference between the wingers, is they play on opposite sides. Hudson-Odoi has favoured the left-wing, allowing him to cut inside on his stronger right foot, and the Saints teen is the other way round, preferring the right wing, which allows him to cut inside on his stronger left foot,
The 24-year-old Forest winger is currently valued at £18m according to Transfermarkt, having only left Chelsea just over a year ago, for £3m, which shows the level Hudson-Odoi is returning to now with consistent minutes,
Dibling, on the other hand, is only valued at £4m by Transfermarkt, but being 18, that value is sure to spike very soon, with the expectation being it would take far more to get the attacker out of Southampton again.
These two young wingers are just two players Chelsea have had on their books in recent years, who are now smashing it elsewhere in the Premier League, a story that looks likely to continue as the Blues sell off top-quality academy graduates for a number of different reasons, watching them turn into top talents.
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