Chelsea transfer plan: Wild spending spree or wise strategy?

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Additional reporting by Gabriele Marcotti and Tor-Kristian Karlsen.

Twenty-two minutes into Chelsea's new Premier League season, the fans at Stamford Bridge roused themselves into a chant after their team fell 1-0 down to Manchester City.

"Conor Gallagher," they sang. Not the team's name. Not their new manager. Not even one of the players signed at an outlay of more than £1.2 billion since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital completed their takeover of the club in May 2022.

Gallagher is an academy graduate with a genuine affinity for Chelsea. The fans knew he was leaving the club, spending the previous days exiled from the first-team group as part of a "bomb squad" --…