Chelsea's January transfer window has been one of noise and smoke. It was described as 'a disaster' by head coach Enzo Maresca, and that was before talk of signing Mathys Tel and Alejandro Garnacho really got going.

For all the promise of a quiet month, it has been anything but. Chelsea have been constantly linked with players with suggestions that stacks of deals could still be done. Despite all of this, the only meaningful piece of business has been the return of Trevoh Chalobah from loan.

Renato Veiga's exit to Juventus until the end of the season has also been completed but his lack of game time makes it unimpactful on the real bounds of the squad. It could all have been so, so different for Chelsea and Maresca, though.

Here, football.london takes a look at just what might have come to pass in an alternative transfer window for the club. Stepping with total abandon into the realms of fantasy, hypotheticals, and what-ifs...

Signed

This could really have gone any number of different ways. For starters, instead of Chalobah, Chelsea may well have gone for Marc Guehi instead. That would have taken over £60million, though, even with his contract due to expire in less than 18 months.

The defence isn't really the position that the real action has been. Instead, in midfield there was the chance to bring in the experienced Douglas Luiz as cover with Romeo Lavia once more out through injury and Moises Caicedo carrying the load of an entire team's defensive work.

Enzo Fernandez missed a week earlier in the window, too, adding to the worries. In another world it is easy to see Chelsea moving on Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and being left with one senior fit midfielder to play in a pivot. Even then, Dewsbury-Hall is hardly suited to that role.

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It's not hard to see how Andrey Santos and/or Lesley Ugochukwu might have been recalled from their own stays at RC Strasbourg and Southampton respectively. Luiz might also have been called on.

Then into attack and anything could have happened. A desperate Chelsea chucking in a massive £70million bid for Victor Osimhen? Sure. That being rejected and Chelsea turning to a pre-agreement for Viktor Gyokeres? Why not. If both of those failed then Liam Delap is the next most obvious.

A £50million offer for him right now would have been hard for Ipswich Town to turn down. At the end of it all there is the attention on Alejandro Garnacho and Mathys Tel.

It looks unlikely that either will join but there is certainly reason to think that both might have. Garnacho as the replacement for Mykhailo Mudryk and Joao Felix whilst Christopher Nkunku leaves - more on that to come. Tel as the backup and competition for Nicolas Jackson. A real mid-season makeover for Chelsea.

The last few days have seen talk of Evan Ferguson as well. Although he is set to join West Ham on loan it wouldn't have been a major shock if Chelsea had gone out of their way to try and bring him in on a permanent on temporary deal, either.

It would certainly have been ambitious, bold, and expensive, but that is Chelsea. For all the noise, Chalobah might be the only one in this universe that we see.

Sold

If the above is fanciful then what is to follow should have been totally realistic. Chelsea had months to get ahead of the game with sorting exits for Carney Chukwuemeka and Ben Chilwell yet, at the time of writing, nothing has been finalised.

Maybe something does get over the line and Borussia Dortmund loan the former without a buy option and then Chilwell heads to Crystal Palace, it could have been so much simpler, though. Milan have been after Chukwuemeka for ages. Recalling Santos and sending Chukwuemeka to Strasbourg is also an easy one.

Dewsbury-Hall to West Ham, Leicester, or Everton would have helped Chelsea out, too. He will now have to sit around and wait until March's Conference League return for extra minutes.

Disasi may well get his move to Aston Villa but here we are going one step further and saying that Felix will join him. Two loans might be a best-case scenario for Chelsea but earning £60million for the pair combined would be a result after two wasted transfers.

As for Felix's attacking teammate, Nkunku to Bayern Munich with Tel going the opposite way makes too much sense not to have happened. Garnacho arriving with Felix out is also an upgrade on what Maresca had available at the start of the month.

In total, Chelsea could and have seemingly tried to do business with almost every club and player out there. Things might have been so different but instead they will surely end the window with a bloated squad still, an underwhelming goalkeeper, lack of leaders at the back, no depth in midfield, and Jackson at centre forward to fight on his own.