Head coach Antonio Conte recently defended Chelsea's decisions during the slowly closing transfer window after the club received a lot of flak for not pulling off the signings of their top targets this summer.
ESPN reported that the 47-year-old Italian boss admitted in a recent interview that the Blues are "in the process of adapting their approach to the transfer market after a frustrating summer".
Chelsea was only able to spend £60 million on the acquisitions of midfielder N'Golo Kante from Leicester City and striker Michy Batshuayi from Marseille, which is deemed a lot lower than their English Premier League rivals such as Manchester United and Manchester City.
Rumors abound that the Pensioners had targeted Everton striker Romelu Lukaku and Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly this summer, but their approaches on both teams had been turned down with the club seemingly unwilling to come back with a second offer.
Conte defended his club, saying that "Chelsea are still willing to spend the big money but that the issue is rival clubs' reluctancy to do business".
"We didn't refuse to spend the money for the right targets," said Conte. "The situation is that the target is not available to buy and to spend the money on."
"Then I also told (them) that I'd prefer to spend a lot of money on the right great player, not on a medium player," he said.
With the team's mediocre summer, Conte admitted that his team will "achieve their goals" through hard work and not relying on the next great big-name signing this season.
"We must understand that, now, in England every team has money," Conte explained. "So you have to solve the problem with hard work. Sometimes you could solve the problem with money. Now you have to solve the problem with work. But that's fine. I have no problem. Work is the bread and butter."
Caught Offside noted that aside from Lukaku and Koulibaly, the Blues have also targeted AS Roma's Radja Nainggolan and AC Milan's Alessio Romagnoli, but the Italian squads are "unwilling to do business for players they consider indispensable", which made it a "tough period for Conte".
Conte is reportedly still looking to strengthen his backfield with two days left in the summer window.
The Blues have so far won all three of their Premier League games, the same with United and City, which is a good indication that Conte's players are responding positively to his system despite the lack of big-name summer signings.
