John Obi Mikel has described Chelsea’s handling of the transfers of Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah as “bad business”.
The two Blues Academy graduates were both up for sale this summer and The Pitch Prospect has learned that both stars have been left out of first-team training.
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Chelsea are keen to get rid of Chalobah, while Gallagher was close to a move to Atletico Madrid and the midfielder even flew to Spain to complete the transfer.
However, Atletico are furious that the Blues pulled out of the deal after Samu Omorodion’s move to Chelsea fell through in the opposite direction.
He has now flown home, but is expected to train with the U21 team.
Many Chelsea fans are angry that their homegrown players are joining the outsiders Romelu Lukaku and Armando Broja.
And that includes former Blues star Mikel.
“Of course, two young lads who bleed blue, exactly,” he said on his podcast, The Obi One Podcast. “Through and through. In the club when they were little lads and now we have to sell them to make sure the books balance.”
“Then it ends up with the owners simply spending way too much money and buying everything that has a price. [them]We simply spend far too much money and buy far too many players we don’t need.
“Now I have to sell what I consider to be the best player of last season, apart from Cole Palmer. [which] was Conor Gallagher.
“He was the only player where you could clearly see that he was trying hard, running and delivering the performance that was needed to stay at the club, you know what I mean.
“I think he should still stay at the club. And Chalobah too when he came back from his injury. He was the best centre-back we had. I don’t think we lost a game when he came back, or probably one or two or something.
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“But he was absolutely fantastic when he came back from his injury and he played all the games.
“Poch trusted him and brought him into the team. He played all the games, he was absolutely fantastic. Now we have to sell these two players to balance the books.”
“Two young players bleeding Chelsea dry and now they have to sell them to balance the books.”
And Mikel didn’t hold back when it came to blaming someone.
He continued: “I just think the owners are doing bad business. Absolutely bad business.
“Now we’ve lost two fantastic players! I think: ‘Will Chalobah improve the team?’ Of course! Of course! Will Conor Gallagher improve the team? For me: yes.
“When he played, towards the end of the season, when he was [Moises] “Caicedo, the energy he has, I think we need that. We definitely need that.”
Chelsea have also sold academy product Ian Maatsen to Aston Villa for £37.5m, Omari Hutchinson to Ipswich for £18m and Michael Golding to Leicester for £5m.
However, the Blues’ squad is still bursting at the seams.
New signings include Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Estevao Willian.
This is in addition to the staggering sums that Todd Boehly and Co. have already spent since taking office.
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This includes Enzo Fernandez – and Mikel believes that the new season is the right time for the Argentine to improve.
“He’s a player who needs a great season,” he said. “We’ve talked about him, we’ve made excuses for him, he’s won the World Cup, he’s fantastic with Argentina.”
“But I think he needs a great season this year. There are no excuses for him.”
Chelsea started the Premier League season on Sunday against reigning champions Manchester City.