How Chelsea won the transfer window: Why Blues insiders think Enzo Fernandez deal is a win, the stars they kept despite circling vultures, how the five big-wigs split the work... and the one major regret

Some supporters whose focus is fixed on English football might not have heard of Lamine Camara before Chelsea agreed to sign him for £47million on deadline day. He’s 22 years old, an international for Senegal and a tenacious midfielder for Monaco.

They have heard of him now, a few fans even suggesting what happened with the promising Camara on Tuesday evening spoiled an otherwise successful summer. We will get to why that is something of an overreaction in a moment, but first, there is no question it made for a messy end to the window.

Camara had completed medical tests in Monaco overseen by Chelsea staff on standby. He had spoken with Xabi Alonso to understand his plans for him. He had agreed a six-year contract with the option of an additional 12 months. A private plane had been arranged to fly him to London on Wednesday morning to begin a new chapter in his career because a full, written, club-to-club agreement was in place.

Then it collapsed, with Monaco informing Chelsea in writing that they were cancelling the transfer, minutes before the 11pm deadline and with the French side declining to sign a deal sheet which would have given everyone an extra two hours to resurrect it.

That would have been helpful when Monaco's Folarin Balogun then decided at 12am that he did not fancy being transferred to Everton. Monaco needed the money and got none.

Chelsea are angry at Monaco. Some of that anger might also be aimed at themselves for leaving it so late to sign a replacement for Enzo Fernandez and running such a risk. It felt an inevitability that Fernandez would leave this summer. There was too much smoke. In the end, he was sold and not replaced.

Enzo Fernandez was no stranger to a yellow card during his time at Chelsea, who are pleased with the fee they got from Manchester City for him

Morgan Rogers (right) is already linking brilliantly with his mate Cole Palmer and looks like a great signing despite the hefty fee

However, this singular failing should not cloud what was overall a corrective window for Chelsea after a campaign in which they finished 10th in the Premier League.

Of the 20-man squad that Chelsea took to Sunderland on the final day of last season, 10 were sold or loaned, Fernandez included. A cultural reset was required. There were still some Enzo Maresca soldiers in the ranks. Liam Rosenior never stood a chance as his successor. Alonso only wanted to keep those totally committed to the cause.

Since BlueCo acquired Chelsea in 2022, nobody had been booked more for dissent than Fernandez, cautioned 12 times for bad behaviour. He was one of those who added to the narrative that this team was too ill-disciplined to succeed. Maresca clearly liked that competitive edge he carried as his vice-captain.

So Chelsea sold Fernandez to City for a big bag of cash – as big as any ever secured in English football, tied with that which Newcastle nabbed from Liverpool for Alexander Isak. Fernandez is a fine footballer, but it is hard to think this 25-year-old Argentinian is worth a fixed fee of £125m even in this silliest of summers.

Chelsea got themselves a good deal from that perspective, particularly after City opened negotiations by proposing a payment of £104m plus add-ons. While Chelsea wanted closer to £135m, they ended up making a profit on a player they signed for £106.8m from Benfica in 2023 and who never truly lived up to that price tag’s hype.

The hair in the soup is that they did not then replace Fernandez. They tried over the summer. They bid £64m for Bournemouth’s Alex Scott in July. They held talks for Roma’s Manu Kone. They chased Camara. Signing nobody for the midfield was a disappointment, and that view will be shared internally at Chelsea after how deadline day unfolded.

It was the only area within the team that they did not strengthen. City did not play along with the deadline they set for offers on Fernandez earlier in August, and by the time they agreed to sanction his sale, they were somewhat snookered and against the clock.

Chelsea managed to keep hold of Joao Pedro despite the advances of Barcelona

But they missed out on Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara (left) after a deadline-day farrago

While Chelsea can be pleased with their big bag of cash, it will not help them on the pitch, starting this Sunday at the home of the Premier League champions, Arsenal.

They will now be relying on Moises Caicedo, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Valentin Barco and Jordan Henderson as senior midfield options. Malo Gusto can also be used centrally if required. Reggie Watson, their academy prospect aged 16, impressed in pre-season under Alonso along with Mahdi Nicoll-Jazuli, also 16.

What will help Chelsea, though, are the others they brought in. While they tried and failed to sign Camara after Monaco’s U-turn, this was still the summer in which Chelsea got serious.

They tried being Todd Boehly’s plaything. They built the Premier League’s youngest-ever side under Behdad Eghbali. In this window, they signed Emiliano Martinez to solve the goalkeeper problem, Morgan Rogers, Maxence Lacroix, Marco Palestra, Pep Chavarria, Danny Welbeck and Henderson.

They kept hold of Joao Pedro, who was wanted by Barcelona, and Cole Palmer, who spent the last season hearing how Manchester United were ready to recruit him. All in all, it was not bad business considering Chelsea entered into this summer amid the usual forecasts of financial Armageddon.

At the same time, Chelsea cleared house, selling or loaning Robert Sanchez, Tosin Adarabioyo, Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile, Alejandro Garnacho, Mykhailo Mudryk, Marc Guiu, Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson, among others.

They insisted they would only sell Pedro Neto for close to £100m and Gusto for £75m, with Liverpool making a play for the latter on deadline day to no avail.

After some of their more out-there experiments in recent years, this was the summer Chelsea got serious - as additions like Emiliano Martinez proved

Chelsea’s approach was described as a collaboration, each of their five sporting directors concentrating on their own areas and Eghbali more invested than most co-owners would be.

For example, a great deal of Paul Winstanley’s work focuses on negotiating with clubs and agents and arranging contracts, such as that signed by Joao Pedro this summer.

When working on signings, Laurence Stewart might deal with the data team, or Joe Shields with the scouting department. Sam Jewell’s remit extends to Strasbourg as well as Chelsea, and then there is Dave Fallows, their newest sporting director who is still building his internal portfolio with background checks on prospective purchases among his responsibilities.

Nobody does everything. Chelsea decided some time ago to narrow their directors’ focuses so that they can go deeper into each area, while Alonso has been allowed his own voice with every signing greenlighted by him as manager.

While it ended in anger over the collapse of Camara, the bigger picture shows this club coming out of this summer better than they went into it.