Falling through an open window

You've got to love the summer transfer window, haven't you? From season's end to season's beginning, three months of rumour and speculation and, occasionally, a transaction. No one - be they football hack or football fan - knows what's really going on, usually until it actually happens. And even then, in the case of Romelu Lukaku's transfer from Everton to Manchester United, the club he was expecting to join - Chelsea - didn't seem to have much of a clue of what was going on, either. Or so we're led to believe.

It is often reported that clubs are considering or even activating wholesale changes, as new managers come in and overhaul their squads. Sometimes it's attritional, at others, a clearout. Which is what makes what's going on at Chelsea more curious. Away from the shock-horror headlines about Lukaku, there appears to be something of a talent drain. Last night Nathaniel Chalobah was sold to Watford for just £5.5 million, a transfer of the player's own volition in the pursuit of more playing time. Likewise Nathan Aké, the superbly versatile 22-year-old sold to Bournemouth. Ditto Dominic Solanke, another highly rated youth product, whose sale to Liverpool is still being finalised due to a difference of opinion between the clubs on his value. Winger Christian Atsu has been sold to Newcastle, while Bertrand Traoré has gone to Lyon. All highly rated young players, players who've either come through Chelsea's youth system, or have been acquired as the next great thing.

The outflow of youth players has also seen more disappearing via Chelsea's now well established loan route: Ruben Loftus-Cheek - one of the few young players to break through under José Mourinho - is now on a season-long spell at Crystal Palace, while Ola Aina finds himself at Hull City for the duration of the next term. Tammy Abraham, who was such a prolific striker last season while on loan to Bristol City, is now at Swansea for the season ahead, albeit with a substantial new five-year contract anchoring him at his parent club. Until he, too, is deemed surplus to requirements, of course.

But still, it's not like Chelsea are awash with strikers, and with Solanke gone and Diego Costa going (a matter of when rather than if), some of the club's fans are getting a little irritated. Chelsea aren't threadbare, though: the current full squad currently totals around 50 players, if first team and 'development' personnel are added together. But the real concern is not warm bodies, but talent, and the nurturing of that talent.

It's long been clear that Chelsea works on a dual strategy of populating its first team with players it has invested heavily in, while its so-called "development squad" acts largely as a husbandry operation. The principle established early on in Roman Abramovich's ownership of Chelsea was that the club's academy should be consistently feeding players to the first team. However, the last academy product to become a fixture was John Terry. Prospects like Josh McEachran, striker Izzie Brown and indeed Loftus-Cheek have all been talked of as having the potential to establish themselves, but nothing has come of it. McEachran is now at Brentford and Loftus-Cheek is at Selhurst Park. Brown remains in the squad, but could be another loanee.

Chelsea's husbandry has drawn praise in some quarters: Marina Granovskaia, described by Chelsea as the "representative of the owner", but also a kind of de facto chief executive, oversees transfer dealings, along with technical director Michael Emenalo. And, it could be said, they've done quite well in generating transfer income so far this summer, with £65.3 million in the kitty from the sales of Aké, Juan Cuadrado, Asmir Begovic, Traore, Solanke and Atsu - all fringe players. In fact, Chelsea have earned in well over £330 million from player sales in the last few seasons, all of which being good for financial fair play, and putting money back Abramovich's way.

Picture: Chelsea FC/Twitter

The issue, however, remains who is coming in, and why. So far the club has only brought in Manchester City keeper Willie Caballero on a free (to replace Begovic) and defender Antonio Rüdiger (above) for £29 million, with Monaco's midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko expected any moment for £40 million (the latter two being specific requirements for Antonio Conte, which explains his willingness to let Chalobah go for £10 million and consider even letting Kurt Zouma - once seen as John Terry's shoe-in successor in central defence - go out on loan as well).

The most vexed issue of all is clearly what's happening about strikers. There was, in fact, a certain indifference from Chelsea fans over the club's failure to land Lukaku. He'd hardly set the world alight when a Chelsea player previously, and for all his prolific goal-scoring at Everton, didn't exactly put himself high on the list of must-have forwards. But, still, Chelsea are currently looking threadbare up front, with only Michy Batshuayi and the forgotten man Loic Remy as first team options for the centre forward position, when Costa goes. Which means signing Alvaro Morata from Real Madrid or Fernando Llorente from Swansea is now a money-no-object imperative.

With a Premier League title to defend and the Champions League to return to (not to mention the domestic cups), Chelsea have a big season ahead, raising even more questions as to why the club has been prepared to let so many of its brightest rising talents go. I'm sure - as indeed are many fans - tjat the club knows what it is doing, and we should just put our faith in them. In the case of Lukaku, it became clear that the club simply wasn't prepared to pay and inflated agent's fee to secure him, and to some extent, that should be respected. But with pre-season already in progress, a summer tour next week to the Far East and a return to Wembley and Arsenal in just three weeks' time for the Community Shield, we can be forgiven for feeling nervous that another summer transfer window will close with targets missed and some last-minute surprises smirking their way through St. Pancras station on the final evening of trading.