Chelsea's Move for Alexandre Pato Epitomises the Worst of the January Window

By the Premier League’s usual bombastic standard, this January transfer window has been a tranquil one. English football’s great and good are, for the most part, happy with what they already have, leaving much of the midseason business to those further down the table.

Chelsea are set to go against that current, though.

The Stamford Bridge club are expected to complete the signing of Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato on a six-month loan deal from Corinthians—as per Dominic Fifield of the Guardian. The 26-year-old arrived in London on Wednesday for a medical, with the forward hoping his form will be enough to push through a permanent move in the summer.

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Chelsea will be well aware of the gamble they are taking with Pato. After all, this is a player who has already spurned one shot at the big time, failing to live up to his billing in five years at AC Milan. At 26, he is already something of a burnt-out star—if he was ever a star in the first place. 

Pato’s goalscoring record in Serie A wasn’t the worst—he netted 51 times in 117 appearances—but after a promising start at AC Milan, his flame was quickly doused. He became a shadow of the player he was thought to be, with the San Siro club eventually cutting their losses for a £12 million fee in January 2013.

Regardless, Chelsea have now come calling in desperation as they look for ways to turn around their dismal season. But their move for Pato epitomises everything that is wrong with the January transfer window.

The midseason opportunity to buy players often brings out the worst in clubs, and Chelsea are exposing their obvious flaws by signing the Brazilian. Plenty has been asked of the Blues this season, but Pato is not the answer to any of those questions. 

Everyone is looking for that one signing that can change the course of an entire season.

Teams near the top of the table will dip into the transfer market to bolster a title push—like Arsenal have done with Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Elneny. Meanwhile, those in relegation danger tend to spend big in an effort to avoid the dreaded drop—just as Bournemouth have done with the signing of both Lewis Grabban and Benik Afobe. 

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But in Chelsea’s case, there appears to be no plan to their spending. It’s just a few weeks since interim manager Guus Hiddink denied the club were even looking to sign a striker. “No—on strikers I repeat now we have Diego Costa, [Loic] Remy back and some youngsters who can fill up the gap so we are not in for that [a striker] at the moment,” he insisted, as reported by Goal.

Hiddink will have little say on which players come in and out of Stamford Bridge, particularly given his role is temporary. The Blues sign players by committee, and that focus group decided to make a move for Pato. 

However, will the Brazilian be an improvement on what Hiddink already has in the attacking ranks? Despite his struggles this season, Costa will still be considered a first-team starter, with Remy boasting a proven Premier League record Pato certainly doesn’t possess. Chelsea are placing their hopes in a player who should be no better than a third option.

It could be argued that Chelsea’s move for Pato is risk-free. If Pato indeed proves a flop in the Premier League—as so many expect him to be—then the Blues can walk away from a permanent deal in the summer with the forward returning to his parent club, Corinthians, in Brazil. If it all goes wrong, Chelsea have a rather convenient escape route.

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But if Pato somehow makes the most of his second chance at the top of the European game, Chelsea could cut themselves a decent deal on a player who was perhaps cast off by AC Milan a little too quickly. That may be an unlikely outcome, but the Blues have covered themselves for such an eventuality. 

Yet it says a lot about Pato that Corinthians are keen to push through a permanent transfer for the striker.

If Pato was really that good, his parent club would surely be seeking more than the £7 million transfer fee that has been reported, according to Simon Jones of the Daily Mail. The Brazilian league harnesses some remarkable talent, but Pato is no Neymar or Oscar.

All the while Jose Mourinho must be an interested observer of Chelsea’s January transfer window activity. The lack of signings was a major flash point for the Portuguese coach in the summer, as the Blues missed out on his primary targets. Pato’s arrival at Stamford Bridge will be the culmination of those failures. 

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Pato is little more than a stopgap solution for Chelsea—albeit a poor one.

Even Hiddink admits it won’t be until a permanent appointment is made that the club will start to make real moves in the transfer market. “I think so,” the Dutchman noted when asked about whether Chelsea would take such a strategy, as per Goal. “This is a realistic view and Chelsea has to deal with that. 

“Also, in a new setting you never know if there shall be the influence of the new staff, new manager—they are question marks for Chelsea and for others who have to say yes or no to coming in. That is the reality of Chelsea nowadays.”

The reality for the club right now, though, is that they are scrambling for ways to salvage what has become a season to forget. The January transfer window presents the chance to turn things around, but with Pato’s signing they will only underline how badly things have really gone.