Michael Emenalo's Chelsea transfer hits and misses: A decade of disasters and delights

As Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo walked out of Stamford Bridge and along Fulham Palace Road, the club’s deal broker having grown tired of infighting and blame games, Antonio Conte is now left watching and waiting.

Wondering about the club’s next move, and probably pondering his. The in-house tensions between manager and board finally caught up with Emenalo, the middle man bored of bearing the brunt of the Blues’ transfer inactivity.

It reached breaking point after the club’s disastrous Champions League trip to Roma last week, the club’s lack of cover in vital positions effortlessly exposed. It all boiled over, and now Chelsea require new direction.

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Emenalo, who played a key role in bringing the exiled David Luiz to, away, and then back to west London, has a mixed track record. Some on the Chelsea board considering him accountable for notable disasters.

His biggest failing were the players allowed to leave who are currently worth their weight in cold.

Chelsea, run of course as a business these days, severely dropped the ball. If allowing one genuine talent to leave is careless, what about three?

Kevin De Bruyne was bombed out in 2014, given little more than six months to impress. Allowed to go, why Chelsea didn’t employ their long-term loan strategy when Wolfsburg enquired is still a mystery.

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The same must be said on Mo Salah. It was just last year that the Blues’ decision makers signed off on the now-Liverpool player leaving for Italy. Now one of the Premier League’s top performing attacking midfielders, it was shortsighted at best, at worst negligent.

Romelu Lukaku begs an even greater question. How – when Chelsea have been crying out for another Didier Drogba – did they not see the obvious potential in pretty much an identikit player?

Letting players go wasn’t their only error. Fernando Torres’ £50m signing ranks high on the list of worst ever football deals. Papy Djilobodji at £2m was a snip, but playing 20 minutes worked out at £100,000 for every 60 seconds on the pitch. That said, a tidy £6m profit raised a smile as Sunderland fell for it hook, line and sinker.

Good business was a hallmark of his decade, and Emenalo was a key figure behind the £7.9m purchase of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in 2011 and Cesar Azpilicueta, a £6m snip, a year later.

It was at the that time that Chelsea pick up another bargain, Bolton Wanderers’ captain Gary Cahill for around £7m.

More often when Emenalo sanctioned the big money deals, they worked. Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante didn’t come cheap but they produced.

Their next technical director’s first job is to appease a manager fast running out of patience.