Chelsea are behaving like they ceased to be a football club - now they appear to be a trading hub, writes MATT BARLOW

The Clearlake crew like to throw the transfer windows wide open at Stamford Bridge. Get the air in. Let anything not nailed down blow around. Freshen the place up. Let things waft in and things waft out on a summer breeze scented with possibility.

Five markets into the new era and Chelsea are behaving as if they have ceased to be a football club. They appear to be primarily a trading hub. A staggering blur of comings and goings. Signing and selling with such vigour it is impossible to keep up.

It explains their utter lack of interest in experienced players. Experience is out of fashion across football. Older players, the ones we used to describe as 'in their peak', have become very expensive and the profit-and-sustainability scares of last season have only made this worse.

Chelsea wilfully cast aside their seasoned professionals. Anyone want Mateo Kovacic? Yes, Manchester City, champions for the last four years. They know a decent midfielder when they see one. It's the reason they happily rehomed Ilkay Gundogan.

Anyone want Raheem Sterling? Yes, Arsenal, the second-best team in the country, who have put him into an improving squad with Kai Havertz and Jorginho, as they challenge with City at the top while Chelsea help pay Sterling's salary.

These are players who have performed in the biggest games and won the biggest prizes. The sort of players who know about winning. Bringing authority into the dressing room. Generally making life easier for their managers. This is not Tottenham's class of 2019, led by Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele, two players signed for a combined fee of more than £100million who have finally departed, given away this summer.

Chelsea made a habit of competing for established players under Roman Abramovich. It's true, they got a few wrong and ran a dubious sideline operation in global teenagers. It's also true subsequent leaks about offshore payments have cast plenty of doubt on its legitimacy.

But they were usually in the conversation when the world's most-wanted were on the move. From Michael Essien and Michael Ballack to Fernando Torres and Andriy Shevchenko to Eden Hazard and Thiago Silva.

Under Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, it is a very different game. There's no link to Vladimir Putin, obviously a welcome development. So too is the background of sporting success in the USA.

The rest of it is not so easy to work out as they stockpile talent like they're addicted to transfers. Too many wingers, you say? Let's sign Jadon Sancho. Players in one minute are horse-traded the next. Or left fallow in a field near Cobham.

I'm sure the money is great and the long contracts a great comfort, but it doesn't feel like a sensible career move to join a club perenially on the cusp of their next major recruitment drive, pushing players out to create some wiggle room on the balance sheet.

Chelsea, like all clubs, want the best young players. Fees might be high, but wages are lower than for established players, bringing down the overall wage bill. And if recruitment is of the highest order and the youngsters develop as expected, Chelsea will, in a few years, have a squad stacked with supreme quality and maturing players to sell at a profit.

Presumably, that's the plan. If there is a plan. It will be intriguing to see how it unfolds because lots of other clubs are trying to do similar things albeit not all in the same way or on the same scale.

The same old football logic remains valid, though. How do these young players develop and enhance their value if they do not play? No pathway, no development. We've seen that often enough. Only the very gifted can step effortlessly from junior football to the elite level of the senior game in the manner of Lamine Yamal.

And, when they do, regardless of their ability or temperament they look around and learn their craft from the senior players. Those who dispense wisdom and set the professional standards inside the healthiest dressing rooms.

Even the young Manchester United side which disproved the theory you can't win anything with kids had plenty of experience inside the dressing room, including Eric Cantona, Peter Schmeichel and Steve Bruce.

Chelsea have cast most of their experience aside and there will come a time when they need it.

If Enzo Maresca can forge a successful team against this confused background in a competition as fierce as the Premier League, he might be something of a genius. If he can't, they'll probably open a window and freshen things up.