Chelsea are hoping to offload five players in the January transfer window, with manager Enzo Maresca keen to trim his squad down further following a summer of change
Chelsea are no strangers to trying to offload unwanted players – and the January transfer window will be no different as Enzo Maresca tries to trim his gigantic squad.
The Blues are well-known for buying up vast numbers of talented young players before farming them out on loan. But since hiring Maresca from Leicester in the summer, they have shown signs of changing their ways, with the head coach wanting to work with a smaller squad.
Maresca has whittled down the squad to land on his core players, leaving many on the outside and needing a move in the New Year. He has continually made headlines for taking a brutal stance when it comes to discipline and will happily allow departures for fringe players in his second transfer window as boss.
There are at least five players who have been made available for transfer or a loan in January, according to BBC Sport. That list is topped by Ben Chilwell, who Chelsea remain desperate to sell, having failed to do so in the summer transfer window.
Chilwell joined the club in a £50million move from Leicester in 2020 but now finds himself frozen out of the squad. He has made just one appearance this season, in the 5-0 Carabao Cup win over Barrow, and still has two and a half years left on his £200,000-a-week contract – a fact that will make a mid-season exit extremely difficult, even after Manchester United considered a move in the summer.
Maresca explained in the summer that Chilwell didn’t fit into his chosen playing style, with Marc Cucurella, Malo Gusto and Renato Veiga ahead of him at left-back.
The Blues will also struggle to shift Carney Chukwuemeka because they are reportedly holding out for £40m to sell the midfielder. Chukwuemeka joined Chelsea from Aston Villa for £20m in 2022 but he has made just 32 appearances for the club since then, including five this season, all in the Carabao Cup or Conference League.
“There are players that unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions like Chilwell, like Carney,” Maresca said recently. “Probably they are the first [to say] that they want to leave because they train every day, because they want to play games and if they don’t play games probably they are thinking of leaving.”
Chelsea will find it easier to shift Cesare Casadei, with the Italian midfielder of interest to both Feyenoord and Monza. Casadei wants more first-team football and will only be allowed to leave on loan.
Harvey Vale is entering the final six months of his contract and looks set to leave Chelsea in January. The 21-year-old attacker is reportedly of interest to clubs in Europe and the Championship after rejecting a move to Al-Ettifaq last summer. Vale has nine goals and nine assists in 15 games for Chelsea’s under-21s this season and shouldn’t be short of suitors.
Alex Matos – a 20-year-old central midfielder – is another player who could leave in January. He spent the second half of last season on loan with Huddersfield and is not in Maresca’s plans.
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