Published: 12:00, 31 October 2025 | Updated: 12:03, 31 October 2025

If success in football were measured by the art of the deal, Chelsea would be top of the Premier League table today. If success in football were measured by churn, Chelsea would be top of the table.

If there were trophies for the club that most eagerly shoved players through a revolving door spinning at the speed of light, Chelsea’s cabinet would be groaning with them.

The hunger, both for acquisition and for disposal, that is Chelsea’s umbrella philosophy and the cornerstone of their financial model, and the ability to turn a profit in the last summer transfer window despite splurging £296.5million on incomings, makes some judges acclaim co-owners Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly as football visionaries.

But when Enzo Maresca’s side runs out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening, it will be hard to escape the reality that this is a club still struggling to marry its executives’ enthusiasm for buying and selling with its rather inconvenient lack of progress on the pitch.

Visionaries? It is hard to discern any...