Chelsea's summer transfer window: Are Lukaku and Saul enough to win the title?

Chelsea may not have been the busiest team in this summer's transfer window, but they did achieve their primary goal  by signing Romelu Lukaku.

The Inter striker's arrival in a deal worth £98 million ($136m) gives the European champions a whole new dimension up front, with Lukaku having already hit the ground running back with the Blues.

He has joined at Stamford Bridge by Atletico Madrid midfielder Saul Niguez, who joined on loan after a frantic deadline day that saw the deal completed just minutes before the window closed.

The only other signing that Chelsea have made was Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli, while the club has been far more busy in trimming the squad both by selling and loaning out players.

Thomas Tuchel, then, will be happy with the transfer window overall, though only time will tell as to whether the club should have added one or two more new faces.

Incomings

Chelsea's goal to sign a clinical striker was fulfilled by bringing Lukaku back to Stamford Bridge seven years after he originally left the club for Everton.

The fee is a club-record sum, but the Blues were willing to pay it after the 28-year-old had shown himself as being a complete striker while leading Inter to the Serie A title in 2020-21.

Getty/Goal

Saul, meanwhile, adds competition to the club's already world-class midfield options, with Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic already on their books.

The move is a loan deal with an option to buy for £30m ($41m) , allowing the Blues to 'try-before-they-buy' with a player who has suffered from a downturn in form over the last two years.

Bettinelli has been bought to replace Willy Caballero, who grew tired of being a third-choice goalkeeper, and the 29-year-old will sit behind Edouard Mendy and Kepa Arrizabalaga in the pecking order.

Chelsea, though, did not get everything they wanted out of the transfer window.

They had bids knocked back for both Sevilla centre-back Jules Kounde and Inter wing-back Achraf Hakimi, who went onto sign for Paris Saint-Germain, meaning Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta will make up the right-hand side of Tuchel's defence for at least the first half of the campaign.

Borussia Dortmund's Erling Haaland was also explored as an option, but the Blues remain delighted to have secured Lukaku as their new No.9.

Outgoings

On paper, Chelsea expertly sold a whole host of players and raised well over £130m ($179m) to end the window with a net profit.

Although the likes of Davide Zappacosta and Tiemoue Bakayoko were sold at a loss to Atalanta and AC Milan, respectively, the Blues can point to other success stories.

The overwhelming bulk of the transfer fees earned were from selling academy players, with Tammy Abraham bringing in £34m ($47m) after moving to Roma. The likes of Fikayo Tomori (to AC Milan), Marc Guehi (Crystal Palace), Tino Livramento (Southampton), Tino Anjorin (Lokomotiv Moscow) and Ike Ugbo (Genk) all brought in sizeable fees too.

Getty/Goal

However, there are fears that Chelsea have let go of some exceptional young talents that they could regret losing in the future, and in the cases of Abraham, Livramento and Anjorin, Chelsea have inserted buyback clauses into the deals, should they want to bring the players back to west London.

It is also notable that Kurt Zouma left the club in a £29.8m ($41m) move to West Ham, and having failed to sign Kounde as a replacement, losing Zouma could be a decision they live to regret.

Olivier Giroud also left the club for AC Milan, but only for a nominal fee, with Lukaku an expensive but unquestionable upgrade.

This year's 'loan army' includes Billy Gilmour (Norwich City), Emerson Palmieiri (Lyon), Michy Batshuayi (Besiktas), Danny Drinkwater (Reading), Armando Broja (Southampton), Ethan Ampadu (Venezia) and highly-rated teenage centre-back Levi Colwill (Huddersfield Town).

Callum Hudson-Odoi, meanwhile, was ready to leave on loan himself having increasingly found himself out of Tuchel's plans. The 20-year-old winger targeted a temporary move to Borussia Dortmund, but Chelsea rejected an offer from the Bundesliga outfit to keep the England international in their squad.

Renewals

The vast majority of Chelsea's contract renewals were for their 25-strong group of loan players as the club looked to again protect their investments in the hope that those players can be sold for a profit down the line.

They are, however, in talks to reward defenders Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger and Trevoh Chalobah with new deals, with the latter having impressed since his promotion to the first-team squad.

Getty/Goal

Only Christensen is understood to be close to signing a new deal, with a four-year contract plus an option for an extra year on the table.

There are fears, though, that Rudiger is ready to run his contract down with less than a year left on his current deal.

Appraisal - B+

Chelsea's team is undoubtedly stronger than it was last season, with Lukaku having replaced Abraham and Giroud, Saul having stepped into Gilmour's shoes, and Chalobah looking set to step up and cover for the sale of Zouma.

They might be a little short of left-back cover after Emerson's departure, but have extra bodies in other positions such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, giving them enviable overall. depth

And so while they have have fallen short of the star power added to the likes of Manchester United and PSG's squads, one game-changing signing in Lukaku and another potentially very useful addition in Saul suggests a job well done.

The potential regret that comes with selling so many talented youngsters hits their overall grade a little, but a B+ is still a solid return from a club who were already in a pretty good place.