Chelsea dealt transfer blow as Enzo Maresca looks to finally sell exiled player
He's been linked with a move away for months.
One exiled Chelsea star’s nightmare looks set to continue, with the club reportedly struggling to sell him ahead of the January transfer window.
The Blues have surpassed all expectations so far this season, with the side second in the Premier League at Christmas and just four points behind Liverpool, albeit having played a game more.
Though Enzo Maresca insists they are not, some believe the club are very much in the title race and are only a couple of signings away from being top challengers.
However, it is more likely that players will leave Stamford Bridge in January, with a number of stars fed up of being left on the sidelines, whilst the club also need to raise funds having spent over £1billion on transfers in the last two-and-half years.
Two players primed to depart are Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka, with Maresca recently stating that he expected the pair to ask to leave having been exiled from the first-team.
Chilwell was told by the head coach last summer that he was surplus to requirements and has played just 45 minutes of football so far this campaign – in the Carabao Cup win over Barrow in September.
The left-back was unable to secure a move away in the last transfer window despite being linked with multiple clubs around Europe and seems destined to finally leave when the window re-opens next month.
However, that may not be the case as, according to The Sun, Chelsea haven’t had a single offer for the 28-year-old defender.
The sticking point, unsurprisingly, is Chilwell’s huge salary, with the England international on a contract worth £200,000-a-week, making him one of the Blues’ highest earners.
Though the likes of Manchester United, Napoli and West Ham have held an interest in signing him, even just on loan, the wages are just too much and some clubs also have concerns over his fitness.
Chilwell joined Chelsea from Leicester in 2020 in a £50million deal, winning the Champions League in his first season, but injuries have hampered his career, missing a whopping 107 games for club and country since the move.
Discussing the full-back’s future in west London, Maresca said last week: ‘There are players that unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions like Chilwell, like Carney.
‘Probably they are the first [to say] that they want to leave because they train every day, because they want to play games. If they don’t play games probably they are thinking of leaving.
‘Each player is a bit different situation, so we’re going to see if some of them are coming and knocking on the door to say, “I want to leave”, or something like that. It depends and we will try to find a solution.’
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