Chelsea were quite active in the 2022 summer transfer window.
It was Chelsea‘s first transfer window since being taken over by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital, and the club’s new owners were quick to back Thomas Tuchel.
Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana were all brought in for big money.
Kalidou Koulibaly was also signed to soften the blow of losing Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined the Blues as well to improve them up front.
However, he was never able to do that in the end, managing to score just one Premier League goal.
Former Chelsea player wanted to leave the club last January
A lot of those signings have not worked out, with Koulibaly and Aubameyang already at different clubs.
The latter has been speaking about his time at Stamford Bridge, admitting that he knew from December 2022 that his short time was up.
In an interview with L’Equipe, Aubameyang said: “I understood from December that the season was over. I already wanted to leave [in January 2023], but you can’t play for more than three clubs.
“I asked myself, ‘Is this what it means to be old?’ And I answered, ‘It’s you who decides’. Either you decide to follow this path and say to yourself maybe it’s old age, or you say no.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Chelsea career could have gone differently
Tuchel was the man who brought Aubameyang to Chelsea but was sacked shortly after the 34-year-old’s arrival from Barcelona.
Had that not happened, Aubameyang’s Chelsea career could have easily gone in an entirely different direction.
Tuchel, of course, worked with the former Gabon international at Borussia Dortmund and got a lot out of him there.
The German’s dismissal and Graham Potter’s arrival obviously did not help Aubameyang. He will go down as a Chelsea flop, managing to score just a few goals for the club, but there is context behind his struggles. And let’s not forget, Chelsea as a whole were a shambles that season.