Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri took advantage of the media frenzy surrounding Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's failed move to Barcelona to sign three players on the quiet on Saturday.
He snapped up 21-year-old French right-back Jean Yves Anis, Portuguese centre-back Mauro Oscar Coelho Da Silva and Dutch forward Mbark Boussoufa, both 18.
The trio were all out of contract - Anis at Rennes, Da Silva at Porto and Boussoufa at Ajax - and have signed two-year deals at the west London club.
Chelsea club secretary David Barnard said: "These three boys are ones for the future. They were earmarked by our system.
"They were out of contract at their clubs and the opportunity came up to sign them."
Ranieri's treble swoop comes after a virtually silent summer in the transfer market.
While Sam Dalla Bona quit for AC Milan in a cut-price £1m move and Slavisa Jokanovic was released, the only addition before Saturday was midfielder Enrique De Lucas, who also joined on a free from Espanyol.
Chelsea's policy of sticking with budget signings is a far cry from the past, when the Blues forged a reputation as big-spenders - a reputation which has helped contribute to the club's reported £97.7m debt.
Ranieri has already revealed his plan to allow youth to play a major role in the future of his team, and his new signings all appear to have potential for the years to come.
Da Silva's agent disclosed that Chelsea capitalised on a fall-out between the highly-rated defender and one of Porto's youth-team coaches.
Amadeu Paixco said the bust-up prompted Porto to usher out Da Silva, who has represented Portugal at Under-16, U17 and U18 level.
Paixco, who has brought many Portuguese players to England through his work for the Sport Entertainment Media Group, said: "Da Silva had been at Porto for seven years.
"He'd been there since he was 11 - but they had seven centre-halves of the same age so had to offload some.
"Porto's sporting director liked him - but one of the junior coaches didn't. Maybe that's just one of those things, but it's a lucky thing for Chelsea.
"He was a free agent so went on trial to Chelsea for two weeks last month. They liked him and kept him."
