Chelsea will not be able to stop signing players, but the squad is bigger than ever and someone has to go.
With the new Premier League season fast approaching, only 25 players can be registered to take part, not including players under the age of 21.
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Chelsea currently have 49 players in their ranks, all of whom have already played for the first team, so the squad will have to be reduced by almost half.
The club is actively trying to get rid of some players, with many others expected to leave on loan.
Young players such as Andrey Santos, Angelo Gabriel, David Datro Fofana, Cesare Casadei and Alex Matos are likely to be allowed to leave Stamford Bridge on loan to continue their development.
However, several other stars have been at the club for some time without featuring in the club’s plans and the Blues would like to get them out of there as soon as possible.
Malang Sarr is already on the verge of leaving after earning £100,000 a week last season but not even getting a shirt number.
The Frenchman’s contract is said to be “torn up” as a return to Ligue 1 is in sight.
And he might not be the only one if Chelsea fail to find other players, with new head coach Enzo Maresca stumbling into a fiasco. So who could be on the verge of leaving?
Romelu Lukaku
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It is arguably the worst transfer in Premier League history: Chelsea are still desperately trying to get rid of Lukaku after a miserable return to the club.
The Blues paid a club-record £97 million for the Belgian in 2021 and gave him a contract worth £375,000 a week that expires in 2026, 10 years after he first joined the London team. But within months, everything went wrong after a falling out with then-manager Thomas Tuchel.
His relationship with the club was never resolved and just a year after signing, he was loaned out to Inter Milan again before moving to AS Roma last season.
Napoli are interested in the striker. There he could reunite with Antonio Conte, with whom he won the league at Inter in the 2020/21 season. However, no agreement has been reached yet.
Trevoh Chalobah
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Despite being a crowd favourite and arguably Chelsea’s best defender last season, Chalobah is likely to be pushed out of Stamford Bridge.
The 25-year-old was left at home while the team flew out of the USA for pre-season training. The club wanted to force him to leave.
Chalobah has been at the club since he was eight years old and the decision has angered many Chelsea fans who cannot believe they would treat a loyal servant in this way.
“This is just outrageous,” said The Pitch Prospect presenter and Blues fan Rory Jennings about the decision to keep the academy graduate at home. “He deserves so much more respect,” he added, stressing that he was speaking sentimentally.
“But if you put aside all sentimentality, Chalobah is the best centre-back at the club and they are only treating him like this for the money,” he fumed, adding that he was convinced that Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile were nowhere near as good as him.
Many fans voted him the club’s player of the year last season and Bayern Munich and West Ham have also expressed interest in the past.
Conor Gallagher
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Another academy star that Chelsea are looking to offload as his contract expires next summer, despite fan protests against the decision, backed by club legends such as Joe Cole.
Aston Villa and Tottenham have been linked with the midfielder, who was Chelsea’s de facto captain last season following injuries to Reece James and Ben Chilwell.
The Pitch Prospect has learned that Atletico Madrid are also interested in Gallagher, but the England international is in no hurry to decide on his future just yet.
This puts Chelsea in a nervous position as they do not want to lose the 24-year-old on a free transfer next summer.
Kepa Arrizabalaga
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The Spaniard was signed for a world record fee for a goalkeeper in 2018, earning a seven-year contract worth £72 million, but was never really able to convince at Stamford Bridge.
Following the signings of Robert Sanchez and Dorde Petrovic last summer, Kepa became third choice and was loaned to Real Madrid, where he fell behind Andriy Lunin in the pecking order.
Chelsea are rumoured to be interested in another goalkeeper this year, which would take the former Athletic Bilbao star further away from the first team.
There is interest from Saudi Arabia in the 29-year-old, who earns £150,000 a week at Stamford Bridge.
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