Chelsea transfer news as the Blues face crucial final week of the summer window with Enzo Maresca demands clear.... CLICK TO READ THE FULL NEWS HERE▶▶
Victor Osimhen is still on Chelsea’s radar this summer Of the nine Chelsea players to start more than 20 Premier League games last season, only four of them have clear roles under Enzo Maresca heading into the final week of the 2024 summer transfer window. That is a demonstration of the continued sweeping change at Stamford Bridge.
When an agreement was reached with Atletico Madrid to sell Conor Gallagher at the end of July, Joao Felix was still just a hazy memory of what remained of the 2022/23 campaign. Now he has been signed as the fugazi attacker that Chelsea didn’t need.
In essence, it is impossible to predict what Chelsea might do next. Part of this is because the public-facing part of the recruitment operation doesn’t emit the sense that the club itself really knows what is around the corner either.
Axel Disasi was signed for almost £40million last summer and effectively replaced the injured Trevoh Chalobah. Now both players could exit. Raheem Sterling was in Enzo Maresca’s plans during the tour of USA but has now been exiled along with a growing group of others.
Who might be next? Ben Chilwell is an outcast, Djordje Petrovic played the second half of last season as the first-choice but is now relegated to transfer fodder, and yet Romelu Lukaku remains. Making sense of Chelsea is still tough. Imagining what might be next is tougher still.
Here, football.london goes through some of the more clear certainties with just over one week left to complete business.
Sign Osimhen
Unlike ploughing headfirst into a nostalgia lane to get back with an ex, Osimhen has been on the cards for Chelsea for a while. It has never been particularly close due to the complications around the deal with Lukaku, finances, and two basketcase football teams negotiating over one of the most high-profile forwards in the world, but it has at least been consistent.
Chelsea have had Osimhen on their radar for years. Although the move to bring in another striker – Jhon Duran, Samu Omorodion, Jonathan David, and the rest – often left him on the outside of conversations, here we are.
One week to go and Napoli are desperate to sell their man before ending up with two enormous salaries to pay, Chelsea are still after the clinical No.9 to power them on, and Paris Saint-Germain are out of the race. If Lukaku gets his move to Naples and some of the upcoming exits are sorted then there’s no reason an agreement can’t be reached here.
One way or another, a new striker is still a priority as Nicolas Jackson remains the only senior one who actually fits the bill. Marc Guiu is 18, Felix is something, but not a natural centre-forward, whilst Christopher Nkunku is likewise and better served elsewhere on the pitch.
Sell, sell, sell
“I don’t see them so it’s not a mess like it looks from outside,” Maresca said ahead of the Conference League clash with Servette, just shortly after Felix was announced. “Absolutely not.”
It was in response to widespread media criticism in the past week of the size of Chelsea’s squad. The Italian took a hard line on the narrative, hitting back against the notion that Chelsea have too many players. “It’s not a mess,” he says just seconds after admitting that 20 senior players were training separately.
This is not Maresca’s fault and there is definite truth that the actual playing group available for selection is far from the 45-odd that has been banded about, but the reality is there are swathes of professionals on Chelsea’s books. Of the “more than 15 players” who are “training apart, they are not with the team,” is a mine of potential cash.
Chalobah, Lukaku, and Petrovic, are just three in this camp. Other players evidently sellable include Armando Broja (close to joining Ipswich at the time of writing), David Datro Fofana, Cesare Casadei, and Kepa Arrizabalaga. Given the hope that Chelsea can cut down this group to avoid an awkward six months at Cobham for many, fast-tracked departures are needed.
There are more who could yet go on loan and a whole stack of academy talents who would also benefit from senior football experience in the wider footballing pyramid. Disasi is another name who could make way whilst talk of an exit for Noni Madueke continues given the reinforcements made in the frontline.
Sterling and Ben Chilwell will need to be sold too. Mykhailo Mudryk has dropped down the pecking order even with Sterling added to the bomb squad in Surrey. A loan for him offers the chance to see him develop without entirely cutting ties with a seriously desirable set of raw attributes.
Settle down
Chelsea are the easiest of easy targets currently. With the money spent, the way that business has been carried out, and a general lack of onfield success, the club are the laughingstock of the world game.
With the end of the window often comes a period of quiet. The international break follows, as does a chance for managers and players to focus on one thing: results. Turning attention away from the ownership and getting some PR wins will come with time and improved performances.
The sparks of the last week of the transfer window may well leave Chelsea with more to put out in this regard but controlling the business and activity between now and then will give Maresca an easier time. Everyone benefits from that.
