Chelsea gets knocked down

Chelsea has just been handed a stern punishment for tampering with French youngster Gael Kakuta to break his contract with Lens to sign with the London club. Chelsea will not be able to participate in the next two transfer windows....wow. That is a harsh, but correct punishment. What alternative did FIFA have? Fine the club? Um Abramovich would have chuckled and found some loose change in his sofas to pay whatever fine there was (they did get a monetary penalty to be paid to Lens). This penalty will be felt. Can Chelsea survive not participating in the winter transfer window? Maybe. Assuming that they do not suffer any injuries to their primary players - Cech, Terry, Drogba, Lampard, Anelka, etc - they will be able to make it through the season without needing to add resources over the January window. Although it will be difficult, they added Anelka a few seasons ago during the winter transfer window. What could prove damaging is not being able to add during the summer. This is when teams make major changes to their effective, adding big names such as Kaka and Ronaldo, and jettisoning players no longer needed. With aging players such as Deco and Ballack in the midfield, players like Mikel ending their contracts, there will be a need to reinforce the midfield and the rest of the team. That ability has been taken away from Chelsea.

Knowing this might push the Blues even harder this season to grab as much silverware as possible realizing that next season might be tough sledding. I am not going to cry over this, Chelsea will be fine, they have depth and talent. Not being able to add players this winter and next summer will make things difficult but this is not Hull, Chelsea will still contend for the Premiership Title. Now if we could only prove that Manchester United did the same!