CHELSEA have started looking for yet MORE wingers – as they are planning for next season without both Jadon Sancho and Mykhailo Mudryk.
The Blues have Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto and youngster Tyrique George as flank options, while Cole Palmer drifts wide when he sees the opportunity.
But boss Enzo Maresca is working on the likelihood that neither on-loan Sancho nor Ukrainian Mudryk will be available next term.
Forward Christopher Nkunku, who was a target for Bayern Munich in January, also remains likely to be moved on.
Madueke is another to keep an eye on and could well be allowed to move on should a club come in with the right sort of offer.
Chelsea chiefs are ready to pay Manchester United £5m to back out of their agreement to sign one-time England winger Sancho.
And the club are still in the dark over the future of Mudryk after he was provisionally suspended for a failed drugs test.
Mudryk costs the Blues £7.3m plus his £5.2m wages every season, with his amortisation precept still standing at nearly £45m this summer.
The Ukrainian faces a potential four year ban under World Anti-Doping rules which are followed by the FA.
Brazilian boy wonder Estevao Willian is being viewed as a potential first team squad member next year after his arrival from Palmeiras in a deal worth up to £48m.
It is expected that Ecuadorean teenager Kendry Paez, 18, will be sent out on loan next season, although he could first be included in the squad for this summer’s Club World Cup.
The youngster has been training with Liam Rosenior’s Ligue 1 side Strasbourg this week as he prepares for the move to Europe.
Chelsea have wanted to help Paez acclimatise to European life and the training culture before making the move permanent.
Sources have indicated that there is no guarantee he will join Strasbourg next season, though it seems likely.
OPEN THE DOR
ONE winger Chelsea are tracking is Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens.
The England Under-21 international is keen on a move to the Premier League with Liverpool also keeping a close eye.
Chelsea may feel they hold an advantage over the Reds, with midfielder Carney Chukwumeka already on loan with the Bundesliga club.
Dortmund hold an option they can activate for the former Aston Villa man, signed by Chelsea for £20m.
The German side are understood to be able to sign Chukwuemeka for just below his £40m release clause at Stamford Bridge.
That means any deal which involved Gittens would require Dortmund’s clause to be renegotiated, which some believe to be unlikely at this stage.
Chukwumeka’s loan has been disrupted by injury but he scored on his first Bundesliga start in an eye-catching performance against Freiburg over the weekend.
The midfielder also played a role in Serhou Guirassy’s goal, with a superb defence-splitting pass.
Dortmund are keen to make the move permanent, so long as they qualify for the Champions League this season.
‘GAMING’ THE RULES
CHELSEA’S near £200m sale of their relentless winning women’s team was a perfect example of “gaming” the Prem’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules.
Despite that, Uefa will NOT allow the Blues to include the sale to parent company BlueCo 22 in their calculations, meaning a likely eight-figure fine for breaching Euro regulations.
But with Prem clubs – who voted against clamping down on “inter-group” property sales last summer – having also agreed to maintain the PSR status quo until the end of next season, Chelsea could have few other assets to flog to the company owned by Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
Two of those are on the Stamford Bridge site, the restaurant at the front of the ground and the Health Club situated at the corner of the main East and Matthew Harding Stands.
There is also the 117 acre Cobham training ground, a section of which is understood to have been sold to BlueCo this season.
And at the main entrance to Cobham, there stands a large detached house, also owned by the club.
However, the sale of the women’s team does mean that the costs and revenues associated with Sonia Bompastor’s side cannot be used in PSR calculations for this season or next term.
ENZ OF THE ROAD?
TALK of a summer exit for Enzo Fernandez is growing, with Madrid giants Real and Atletico both snooping around the Argentine playmaker.
But the eight and a half year deal agreed when the South American made his £106m switch from Benfica in January 2023 means the Blues could be faced with a HUGE loss on any transfer – causing them a significant PSR issue.
The massive contract length allowed Chelsea to “amortise” his annual cost – not including estimated wages of £9.3m a year – at £14.5m per season.
Yet if Fernandez did leave this summer, with six years still to go on his initial deal, Chelsea would need to agree a deal of £87m JUST to break even.
Any figure below that would significantly cut into their PSR calculation numbers, even if the Blues will be allowed to bank their up-front £30m entry fee for this summer’s Club World Cup.
SAFETY CONCERNS
CHELSEA fans need to be careful in Poland this week.
The club failed in their bid to get more than 742 tickets for Thursday’s Europa Conference League quarter-final away to Legia Warsaw.
The behaviour of the Polish club’s notorious ultras was the reason why Chelsea received less than the normal 2000 tickets for an away game due to fears over the travelling supporters’ safety.
Although Chelsea asked for more tickets Uefa insisted that they had to stick with the original amount.
Equally, Legia are allowed only 1000 fans inside Stamford Bridge next week which is half the number they requested and there will be a huge police presence at the game.
Legia fans are known for causing all sorts of problems home and away.
They were banned from five away European games due to violent clashes before the Conference League match at Aston Villa in November 2023.
In total, 46 men were charged after fans ran riot. A number of police officers were injured.
In a statement, Villa said: “This shocking behaviour followed Legia club officials’ complete lack of cooperation with West Midlands Police, Aston Villa and UEFA throughout the day.”
Legia have continued to be in hot water with Uefa this season. They unfurled a giant banner before a game against Molde criticising the governing body and this led to a one-game stadium ban.
NO EXCUSES
LOOKING through the Legia squad offers another example of how absurd it is the Blues are even in this competition.
The Polish side’s most notable and valuable player is former Wolves defender Ruben Vinagre.
According to Transfermarkt, in total the Warsaw squad is worth just over £31miliion, or one Malo Gusto.
This week they face up with a Blues squad valued at a staggering £791m and recently confirmed as the most expensive in history in UEFA’s financial report.
Chelsea have few excuses for not winning this competition.
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