Chelsea were naive to think players would join them simply for being champions and left transfers far too late
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fernando Llorente, Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley have all proven the Blues were wrong in their approach
AS champions of England, Chelsea should be in a position of power.
Every star, every emerging talent in world football, should be queuing up to pull on that famous blue jersey.
Instead, they are turning their backs on Antonio Conte.
Romelu Lukaku, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Fernando Llorente and Ross Barkley have all slipped through their grasp.
Chelsea are not used to this.
Marina Granovskaia, their celebrated transfer negotiator, has been outmanoeuvred during a frustrating summer for last season’s Premier League winners.
Leicester midfielder Danny Drinkwater and Torino full-back Davide Zappacosta are decent players, but they are not going to placate Conte.
The Champions League campaign is about to start and Chelsea’s squad is not deep enough to sustain challenges in two competitions.
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Conte is entitled to be miffed. Even with the arrivals of Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko, it is not enough to satisfy Chelsea’s demanding head coach.
He changed his tune in the final weeks of the window, firmly put in his place by the club’s board after antagonising them over their failure to strengthen a title-winning squad.
Granovskaia was undoubtedly his main target.
There has been friction between the pair since Conte sent the infamous text to Diego Costa telling him he could quit the club.
The Spanish striker has not been seen since — other than posting provocative Instagram pictures from Brazil.
With each passing day, Costa’s valuation reduces. That is down to Conte mistakenly believing he held all the aces at Stamford Bridge after landing the title in his first season in London.
He will be a frustrated figure now.
Chelsea were used by Oxlade-Chamberlain, with the publicity surrounding their £35million bid prompting Liverpool to make their move.
The champions could not promise him a position in the centre of their midfield at the expense of N’Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas or Bakayoko.
Instead, he has moved to Anfield, where the momentum is with Jurgen Klopp’s side after an exciting start to the season.
When the Blues opened talks with their ex-striker Lukaku, they were done all ends up by former boss Jose Mourinho.
They assumed — wrongly — that Lukaku would never work with the Special One after he moved the Belgian on to Everton in 2013.
That turned out to be a fatal error of judgment.
United are well in with that particular character Mino Raiola, the former pizza maker turned football agent with the hotline to Ed Woodward and the United manager. His roster of clients includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Lukaku. All three are now at United.
Despite Chelsea’s failure to recapture Lukaku, their second pick — Morata — has had a decent enough start to his Chelsea career.
He scored on his home debut against Burnley when he came off the bench and netted in the 2-0 win over Everton before the international break.
Barkley is another major miss, but Chelsea registered their interest in the midfielder far too late to convince him that his future is at Stamford Bridge.
The seduction process, lining up these moves months in advance, has been overlooked this summer.
They have been convinced that the brand will be enough, that the chance to play for the champions Chelsea will seal any deal.
After this, they will need a major rethink.
