The words ‘Chelsea’ and ‘bargain signing’ have rarely been used together in the mainstream since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium bought the club in May 2022.
When you have spent well over £1billion on new players in the space of just over two years, praise for doing good business can be in rather short supply, particularly without any silverware or Champions League football to show for it.
But look beyond some of the more mean-spirited hyperbole and there have been some transfers which are delivering great value for money. The first name on everyone’s lips will be Cole Palmer’s switch from Manchester City for £40million (plus £2.5million in add-ons), but Malo Gusto (£26.3million plus add-ons), Nicolas Jackson (just over €35million, around £29.5million) and Noni Madueke (£28.5million) are all impressive purchases from 2023. All four are currently first choice players under head coach Enzo Maresca.
If Jadon Sancho, who joined on a season-long loan on deadline day in August from Manchester United with an obligation to buy next year worth £20-25million, continues his fine start to life at Stamford Bridge then he will be another.
But it is someone with a much lower profile that is also beginning to become a firm favourite with the crowd as well as the coaching staff. Renato Veiga has not quite established himself as a member of Maresca’s ‘A team’ just yet, but he has become the Italian’s most surprising trusted squad player.
Veiga’s arrival barely caused a stir when Chelsea acquired the Portuguese U21 international from FC Basel for just £11.8million in July. He is one of the consortium’s cheapest buys, coming in at over £100million less than the club record fee paid out for Brighton’s Moises Caicedo (£115million).
Veiga opens the scoring against Gent (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
But after 10 games in all competitions, Veiga has made just as many appearances for Chelsea (8) as Caicedo has. Naturally the latter has been picked more in the most important of them — the Premier League — but the fact Veiga has been left unused in just two fixtures so far is noteworthy in itself.
More significant though is the minutes tally. As this table going off figures compiled by transfermarkt shows, Veiga (487) has accrued the eighth highest amount of game time on the pitch from all the players at Maresca’s disposal. He is ahead of some big names including Pedro Neto (440), Christopher Nkunku (421) and Joao Felix (274) who do not even make the top 10.
Granted the majority of his minutes have come in starts against minor opposition in Servette (twice), Barrow and Thursday night’s opponents Gent, but Maresca is not shy to use him off the bench in the Premier League. And when Enzo Fernandez (unwell), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (unwell) and Romeo Lavia (hamstring) were all unavailable to face Bournemouth in the 1-0 league victory last month, Veiga played the full 90 in central midfield.
Chelsea made a move for Veiga because they like his adaptability. He is taller and a lot cheaper than Riccardo Calafiori, a player they were linked with during the close season but who moved to rivals Arsenal for up to £42million.
For the most part he has operated on the left side of defence and is a major reason why England international Ben Chilwell is barely seeing any action. Against a Gent side that sat very deep and relied on the counter attack, he got forward a lot more and was rewarded with his first Chelsea goal, heading home Mykhailo Mudryk’s cross smartly into the corner.
Maresca confirmed to The Athletic afterwards that it was a deliberate ploy to push him up the pitch and could barely stop smiling as he explained why he is using Veiga so much. Maresca said: “He is tall, he is big. Tonight he played like an attacking midfielder, in the pocket for the first time of the season for us. He did very well. You never imagine Renato arriving in the box and scoring from the other side. That means he is doing well.
“When we needed him as a holding midfielder against Bournemouth, he was there. The other day against Brighton, as a full-back. He is versatile.”
A few of the match statistics compiled by Opta provide an indication of what a good all-round game he had in the 4-2 victory. No Chelsea player made more passes into the final third (14) and one of the main beneficiaries was Mudryk, who played ahead of him on the left flank. Veiga also had most defensive actions (7), tied for most duels won (6) and the best expected assists (xA) output of any player in the game (0.33) . Only Mudryk, Joao Felix and Neto had more touches (from both teams) than his five in the opposition penalty area.
It is early days but what makes Veiga’s story such an enjoyable one is that no-one is probably more pleasantly surprised than he is about how well things are going. When he gave his first interview to the media during the pre-season tour of the USA, he was asked by The Athletic whether he knew what the club’s plan for him was, whether he was bought to help Chelsea this season or was being sent on loan to develop.
“We will see at the end of pre-season or after the market closes (what happens),” he replied. “I feel the trust from the manager and my colleagues. I just want to do my best and we will see of course.”
Celebrating with the Chelsea fans at Bournemouth last month (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Veiga went on to explain that he could not turn a transfer to Chelsea down because he sees them as ‘the biggest club in England’ and emphasised just how happy he is to be there. Anyone who saw him celebrate Nkunku’s late winner at Bournemouth (where he was booked for jumping in with the away fans to celebrate) or his goal versus Gent can see that.
The most encouraging thing for Chelsea and Veiga is this is just the beginning and there should be a lot more to come. And as that happens, more and more people will begin to recognise that Chelsea have got themselves a bit of a steal.
(Header photo: Tom Goyvaerts/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)
