Lucy Bronze to Chelsea is one of the surprises of the summer. Does the move make sense?

Lucy Bronze’s arrival at Chelsea may have been on the cards for a little while but it is still one of the surprises of the summer transfer window.

The England full-back looked set to sign a contract extension at Barcelona — something that would have been a first in her career — but she instead made the decision to leave the club. Chelsea will become the fifth English team she will have played for after spells at Sunderland, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City, with the Women’s Super League champions fighting off strong rival interest from the NWSL.

There is no doubt Bronze is a high-profile signing. She is one of England’s best-known players, boosted by her time abroad at Lyon and Barca. Her list of honours is something most could only dream of; eight league titles in three different countries, five Champions League titles, and the 2022 European Championship with England. She has been included in FIFPRO’s World XI six times.

But regardless, Bronze sits firmly outside Chelsea’s traditional recruitment patterns. Normally the club focuses on ‘peak age’ players who would be ready to contribute for a number of years, or younger players who are seen as development options. At 32, Bronze is much older than the players Chelsea usually sign, and she becomes the second-oldest in their squad (only Wales midfielder Sophie Ingle is older, by a month). Chelsea actually let go three players over 30 over the course of last season — goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger, defender Maren Mjelde and forward Fran Kirby.

That has meant there has been a loss of experience, something Bronze will undeniably bring. Chelsea were without captain Millie Bright and vice-captain Sam Kerr for large portions of last season through injury, relying on Erin Cuthbert and Niamh Charles (both 25) sharing the armband. With Sonia Bompastor now taking over as manager from Emma Hayes, the leadership group may change — but Bronze has the experience and temperament to be a positive influence in the dressing room at least.

But the question is whether that will extend to the field. It has been hard to ignore her decline as a player over the past couple of seasons. There have been big errors in important matches, including two in the 2023 Champions League final which left Barcelona 2-0 down against Wolfsburg before they eventually came back to win 3-2. There was no such redemption in the World Cup final later that summer, where Bronze’s error allowed Olga Carmona to score what turned out to be the winner in Spain’s 1-0 victory. She will not be playing in a team anywhere near as dominant domestically with Chelsea as she was with Barcelona in Liga F.

In Ashley Lawrence and Eve Perisset, Chelsea do already have two right-backs Bompastor will know well. Bompastor played with Perisset at Lyon and she came up against Lawrence plenty of times in the French league when she was at Paris Saint-Germain. Bronze will want to be a starter — she has never played second fiddle in her career — but it is hard to argue right now that she is better than Lawrence at the very least.

Bompastor likes a full-back who will get up and down, something that is decidedly not Perisset’s forte, but given Bronze’s age it is not really hers either. Bronze’s most impressive recent performances — in the second leg against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final and in the final itself — have come when she has just stuck tightly to her defensive duties. Only her aerial game truly stands out above Lawrence’s, where she is far more dominant.

Given the strange footballing fit, it is hard not to wonder whether the deal has more to do with the commercial element. Chelsea’s owners have made many references in the past few months to  the women’s team being able to stand on its own two feet, potentially through selling a stake in it, for example.

Chelsea’s 2022-23 accounts showed the group had put a further £4.3million ($5.5m at current rates) into the women’s side. It is no coincidence, then, that the club negotiated separate sponsorship deals for their training kit this season, with Three sponsoring the women and BingX the men.

The commercial appeal of a player like Bronze would be a no-brainer, with Chelsea’s other Lionesses not making the same impact that Arsenal have benefited from with Leah Williamson and Beth Mead. Chelsea are obviously focused on making more money from their women’s team and Bronze would help with that.

That would be a concerning move from Chelsea if it were the case, particularly if Bronze was to start a lot. But her signing could just as likely be a request from the new manager that the club wanted to fulfil.

The uncertainty arises from the unfamiliarity with Bompastor. Hayes built up a lot of credit for her ability to identify, work with and improve talent. If Hayes thought a player was good, chances are she was. Bompastor has yet to establish that trust at a new club, both in terms of her assessment of incoming players and transfer targets.

Time will tell on a lot of this — the number of minutes Bronze plays, how she readapts to the WSL, Bompastor’s player preferences. But the signing is a strong reminder that this is a new era at Chelsea, and how things went before may not influence what comes next.

(Top photo: Alex Caparros – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)