Cast your minds back to the closing weeks of August 2020. The 2019/20 season, extended by the COVID-19 pandemic, has recently ended and already Chelsea were embarking on a massive summer spend under Frank Lampard.
In the week leading up to the news breaking that Marina Granovskaia had struck a deal with Leicester City for left-back Ben Chilwell, it suddenly emerged that an alternative was available.
Real Madrid's Sergio Reguilon was likely to be on the move, and soon social media had become convinced that he would prove a better option than the more expensive Chilwell. Reguilon had spent the previous campaign on loan with Sevilla and had looked promising marauding forward.
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Why would Chelsea pay double for Chilwell when a cheaper alternative was right there? But Lampard had made his mind up long before. As early as December of 2019, Simon Johnson from The Athletic reported that Chilwell was the main target for the club the following summer.
Although there were rumours of Porto's Alex Telles and Ajax's Nicolas Tagliafico, Chilwell remained the constant name throughout, eventually becoming a reality for a price some deemed too high.
Reguilon did make a move to the Premier League weeks later but to North London with Spurs for £27m. Again there was frustration as to how Chelsea had spent £50m on Chilwell when a potentially shrewder deal was staring them in the face.
Months later, when Lampard was sacked and replaced with Thomas Tuchel, there was increased scrutiny on Chilwell, who briefly lost his place to Marcos Alonso as the England defender had to adapt to a new wingback role. In particular, one performance against Leeds sparked mass social media scorn, again citing his initial price.
But soon, those criticisms were silenced as Chilwell became the clear starter for Tuchel as he had for Lampard. He netted a crucial goal in the Champions League quarter-final against Porto, had an equaliser harshly chalked off by VAR in the FA Cup final against his former club, before putting in a masterful defensive display in the Champions League triumph over Manchester City.
Reguilon's early run of bright moments had soon faded as Jose Mourinho's reign collapsed in on itself. By the end of the season, the Spaniard looked out of form. Fast forward to today, and the two paths for Chilwell and Reguilon could not be much more different.
Chilwell is returning a beloved figure from a devastating ACL injury that halted an inspirational start to last season. Reguilon, on the other hand, appears to be on his way back to Sevilla, brutally left out of Antonio Conte's squad to South Korea for pre-season preparations.
The Chilwell and Reguilon case is a perfect example that sometimes, paying a premium for a Premier League experience is absolutely worth it. Chilwell took little time to integrate under Lampard, and although he was slightly rocked by the change in formation under Tuchel, he stepped up again, proving an integral part of the German's set-up.
There are always intangible elements that define a signing's success or failure, some of that is not always the sole fault of the player, but this was a great example that potentially Tuchel is following this summer of buying what you know from the league.
This is not always a guarantee, as both Thiago Silva and Edouard Mendy proved in the same summer Chilwell arrived, but it certainly falls into the category that sometimes a player comes for a lower price for a good reason.
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