What if, just what if? Two words that mean so much and yet so little, often questions tinged with retrospect and hindsight but also grounded in reality. For Chelsea in recent years it can be applied in many different ways.

What if they had pushed harder to sign Aurelien Tchouameni instead of going for Saul Niguez on loan? What if Billy Gilmour had been prioritised and Carney Chukwuemeka trusted in midfield over another temporary addition in the form of the totally forgettable Denis Zakaria? Could Tammy Abraham have scored the eight league goals Romelu Lukaku did in 2021/22 and done it without the club imploding around him?

Decisions, decisions, decisions. Chelsea have made a lot of bad ones recently. Was Kalidou Koulibaly really a better option than Fikayo Tomori in the 12 months seperating their moves to and from Stamford Bridge? How did Christian Pulisic last so long and what on Earth was going on with David Zappacosta?

These deals cross ownerships, they span sporting directors and transcend eras whilst perfectly encapsulating the slump that has been part of both the end of the Roman Abramovich era and start of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital one. What has maybe changed, just maybe, is some of the clarity.

That is strange to say for a club that moved on more than ten players over the summer including one that they purchased less than a year ago and eight that would genuinely have been considered first team options in May. The movement at the top of the club has been nothing less than totally unsettling and the plans not always clear. There has been a ruthless ark though, splitting with Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter, holding little value in sentimentality. A messy plan is at least a plan.

Rightly or wrongly it is probably still too soon to properly tell and Mauricio Pochettino's start to life reflects the troubles but also potential of the club right now. What he has been able to do, though, is offer an outside voice without needing to play along to the club tune that has controlled things for so long and it has been refreshing.

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In an ideal world he may well have kept Mason Mount or seen Lewis Hall remain over the summer but largely there have been decisions made that align with the vision to produce a young squad full of hungry players. The issue that has been prevalent though is just where these players come from.

Kai Havertz and Timo Werner were both young when they arrived and rewind to the summer of 2020 would surely have been amongst the names that Boehly-Clearlake would also have admired in that landscape. Before launching into a scathing assessment of the pair it is worth noting that they did win the Champions League for the club and played central if inconsistent roles in the squad.

Werner missed two golden chances in Porto before Havertz's game and glory-crowning winning goal but ultimately the pair scored 30 league goals in 159 games combined. Jorginho, a midfielder that pretty much only scores penalties, has 21 in 166 games alone.

It is not necessarily the signings that are the problem here but the opportunities afforded and the resultant impact of their underperformance. During the Chelsea stays of Havertz and Werner - three years and two years respectively - Chelsea parted with Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

That pair cost a pittance comparitvely due to their journey through the youth system and would find it tough not to match their output at very least. This is forgetting that they also have much lower wages and account for two homegrown spots in the squad as well. There is a connection to them as academy graduates and it helps to forge a pathway. Instead the shinier players were valued higher and given more opportunity.

In defence and Koulibaly played while Marc Guehi and Tomori were both sold on before him. Wesley Fofana was signed off the back of two long-term injuries and has hardly featured since. Not to say that he isn't a wonderful player, but in terms of value for money Chelsea had two England nationals in their ranks and are now waiting for Fofana to return instead.

Malo Gusto has been a noble deputy to Reece James this season and was far from expensive but Tino Livramento is a readymade replacement and has moved twice in the time it took Cesar Azpilicueta to depart despite his role waining when entering his 30s. Not only is it entirely inefficient to use the academy like this but it also makes it harder to justify to the current crop that there is a reason to stay and not move abroad or to a growing swathe of other sides that offer gametime.

Hall made his Chelsea debut months after Marc Cucurella arrived from Brighton and looked immediately more competent, versatile and comfortable, hence the notion and precedent remains that Cobham players have to be better than their equivalent competition. This is surely backwards.

The same can be said over the summer and the perfect example is Conor Gallagher. While he was scoring eight times on loan at Crystal Palace in 2021/22 from midfield only Mount got more at Stamford Bridge in the entire squad. Mateo Kovacic, N'Golo Kante and Jorginho managed ten between them. Pulisic only got six, Havertz eight, Hakim Ziyech and Werner landed eight between them.

The cost to run these 'stars' that played little like stars in general - there are exceptions and judging Kovacic, Kane and Jorginho on goals is to underestimate and underappreciate their skills, but it does show to wider squad building issues - is extortionate. The cost to trust Gallagher is near enough zero.

Yet come the start of last season under Thomas Tuchel and Gallagher was shifted from his position and used as a bit-part, nearly sold and rarely utilised whilst Havertz, Pulisic and Ziyech all remained. Jorginho wasn't sold until January, Kovacic and Kante left this summer.

The culling that happened under Pochettino wasn't unexpected and came partially due to the shocking performances of last term but it was alarming just how easily Chelsea fell into the trap of staying with their already aged 2021 Champions League winning core despite little evidence that domestic success was around the corner.

The squad fell off under extreme circumstances in 2022 and then collapsed. Havertz, despite only once scoring more goals than Gallagher, was handed numerous extra chances to impress and to get his money's worth meanwhile the 23-year-old midfielder was left to play off scraps.

It would be beneficial, surely, to reverse this process and to allow those who come from within and cost much less the bigger chances to prove themselves rather than scrambling to make up value with lost performances. The ideal scenario is to balance the best additions to the best academy players, something that Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo alongside Gallagher looks like, but seeing Havertz falter whilst Abraham goes is nothing short of a major frustration.

The fact that players like Gallagher, now Ian Maatsen and soon to be others in the squad before it is too late, have faced a tougher ride to get to this point is something that needs changing. In his second year at Chelsea Gallagher now looks ready to be a dominant figure in the league and is putting up stats to back this up. It has taken him an adaption period, something often afforded to new signings but not academy graduates, but he has got there.

It is this treatment, something that just about looks to be on the rise under Pochettino and potentially still to come with the new owners, that needs to be the staple. It remains too easy to write off academy players as being below par whilst showing faith in the expensively assembled others, it is too easy to hope for Havertz's best rather than trust Gallagher's development.

Ian Maatsen is currently one of those that has been forced to watch on despite being a consistent performer across the leagues whilst attacking and defensive left-sided options disappoint. If it's not already too late then an approach that gets him into consideration will be needed before the next big talent is lost for the next big hope.