In early September, after signing a player who Mikel Arteta had recently run out of town, Todd Boehly had this to say about his latest acquisition as Chelsea owner and interim sporting director.
“Pierre-Emerick is an elite striker with a proven track record in the Premier League and his arrival strengthens our squad, giving us new attacking options.” Yes, including the option to bring the striker on after five minutes and hook him an hour later.
Boehly was in the stands to watch the humiliation of Aubameyang during Thursday night’s defeat by Manchester City but, considering the 33-year-old forward has managed just one Premier League goal for Chelsea in nine appearances, it cannot have come as a massive surprise.
In fact, Boehly might even have forgotten he had signed the man whose departure from the Emirates last year is now seen as one of the wisest moves of Arteta’s blossoming management career. After all, he is busy again, Todd.
Next to him in the Stamford Bridge posh seats the other evening was Benoit Badiashile, the 21-year-old French defender signed for £35million from Monaco on a seven-and-a-half year deal. David Datro Fofana, the £8.5million recruit from Molde, was also in the vicinity and, not far away, sat Shakhtar Donetsk director Darijo Srna, in town to sell star winger Mykhailo Mudryk.
There was no sign of Benfica manager Roger Schmidt, who had earlier accused Chelsea of being “disrespectful” in the manner in which they were pursuing the signing of Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez.
Presumably, if Chelsea do manage to complete the signing of 21-year-old Fernandez - and you would not put it past them to eventually pay the €120million (£106m) release clause for a player who has made little more than a dozen league appearances for the Portuguese club - they might drop out of the looming summer races for Jude Bellingham and/or Declan Rice. But do not bank on it.
When Boehly and the Clearlake Capital Group bought Chelsea - and Boehly was installed as the interim sporting director (a title and position that he still appears to hold) - there was plenty of talk of putting in place a state-of-the-art, data-led, American sports-inspired transfer strategy. But quite frankly, it looks like they are making it up as they go along.
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Scattergun does not do it justice. Don’t forget, they have striker Christopher Nkunku looking certain to arrive later this year from RB Leipzig in a £50million-plus move and Brazilian teenager Andrey Santos is in the process of signing for another eight-figure fee.
When talking about recent Chelsea signings, it is inevitable you are going to forget one or two. It is hard to keep up, it really is. And that does not just apply to humble onlookers - that probably applies to Graham Potter, the man entrusted to make sense and a winning team of it all.
It has not been the best start to his Stamford Bridge career, for sure. But if there has ever been an ownership model that will take a manager - any manager - some getting used to, then it is this one. And that is why Potter will need a lot, a lot longer to prove his worth.
