When Chelsea signed Timo Werner (£47.7m) and Kai Havertz (£71m) for a combined £118.7m last summer, it was clear the club were making a long-term investment in the future. At 24 and 21, respectively, the two German forwards arrived at Stamford Bridge with only bright things ahead of them, and Chelsea overcame competition from Europe's top clubs to get the deals done.
It was a similar story with Hakim Ziyech (£36m from Ajax), Ben Chilwell (£50m from Leicester) and Edouard Mendy (£22m from Rennes). Chelsea spent big in the build-up to the 2020-21 season because they not only wanted, and needed, to strengthen manager Frank Lampard's squad, but because billionaire owner Roman Abramovich and executive director Marina Granovskaia were determined to future-proof the team and ensure that the club could compete for major honours for the next 5-10 years.