Chelsea left sweating with striker options thinning in the transfer market

Chelsea’s transfer window might finally be picking up pace with the signing of Tiemoué Bakayoko and the expected arrivals of Danilo and Alex Sandro to only enhance what was already one of the speediest teams in the league, but the big question - and big dilemma - is where those runs will end. Who will that pace ultimately serve?

It is fair that Antonio Conte would still be someway frustrated about the champions’ summer because it’s still no clearer what striker they will end up with - a signing they badly need - after losing Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United and making it clear Diego Costa has no future. This is now the primary task for the window, and potentially the decisive factor in whether Chelsea can even properly defend their title: to get a goalscorer in, not to mention a back-up.

For many connected to the situation, it does seem clear that primary forward will eventually come from a fairly narrow band of players: Borrusia Dortmund’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Torino’s Andrea Belotti and Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata. Lukaku was one of that club but has left to join another, who happen to be Chelsea’s rivals.

It is something of an idiosyncrasy to the transfer market right now, and one big reason why Morata - a talented player but one who has as yet only really had one good season in his career - has been priced so outrageously high by Real Madrid at £78m.

There are simply very few available goalscorers who would come close to matching the requirements of a top European club. As such, all have a premium. For anyone searching for a striker, it has come down to these same few candidates, meaning it is all the more decisive when one is captured - and all the more damaging for Chelsea that they didn’t get their main target in Lukaku.

Morata is probably the closest to the Belgian in terms of profile, although still very different, but Conte has gone quite hot and cold on the Real forward. Interest first cooled in March and, despite another look at the 24-year-old after it was announced that Lukaku was going to Old Trafford, those close to Morata and the club now feel it is unlikely he will go to Stamford Bridge.

Some have put that down to Chelsea apparently getting offered Aubameyang for under £70m but even that presents a few questions given that Conte is said to want a proper target man, and the speedy Dortmund striker is not that. Belotti almost seems the best option, and best mix, but is the highest priced with a newly bullish Milan competing for his signature too.

It does remain something of a quandary as to what Chelsea are going to do, but then this is also where Conte has specifically proven his special qualities in the past. As one figure who has worked close to his previous clubs confided to The Independent, “he’s too clever not to come up with something, he always does”.

That could be seen last season, given that he got none of his first-choice signings, and many of the champions’ best performers - like Victor Moses, David Luiz and Marcos Alonso - came from improvised tactical decisions. Perhaps the potential purchase of Aubameyang would be along these lines too, since he doesn't quite seem to suit the current team in the way Morata or Lukaku did.

Either way, Chelsea are going to have sign someone or come up with something, because no manager can out-think football’s most fundamental and inherent truth: you still need to score goals. Chelsea, right now, have no obvious main source of them.