The time has come to put Chelsea’s so-called ‘bomb squad’ into perspective.
Chelsea have been subjected to a lot of criticism and negative scrutiny this week over the treatment of players no longer wanted at Stamford Bridge and the fact they have so many to get rid of before the transfer deadline next Friday (August 30).
There are questions for Chelsea to answer about how they find themselves in such a predicament with only days of the window remaining. It is never a great look to have to put on separate training sessions for a group of unwanted personnel numbering well into double figures. And it clearly makes the task of getting a good transfer fee for them a harder when it has been made public how little they are valued by the club that own them.
But amid the outcry, no-one seems to have considered how many of the rejects would improve the squad head coach Enzo Maresca has chosen to select from. The former Juventus and Sevilla midfielder was having to deny suggestions his actions were ‘brutal’ in a press conference on Wednesday. Yet who can really say they have been truly hard done by? Not that many when you look at it with a more measured disposition.
Not everyone will agree with the names on my list. But now that Conor Gallagher has gone, only defender Trevoh Chalobah and goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic have a strong case to say they have been harshly treated.
The furore all started with Raheem Sterling being told by Maresca before the opening Premier League game of the season against Manchester City that he would be better off leaving if he wants regular football. It understandably came as a shock to the winger after featuring regularly in pre-season (albeit not starting every game) and was talking positively to friends in praise of the Italian’s training sessions.
Has Sterling been value for money at Chelsea? (Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
But is his omission really that bad a call, especially now that Pedro Neto and Joao Felix have been signed? As new arrivals, they are automatically high up in the pecking order. Sterling has scored 19 goals and provided 12 assists in 81 appearances. The figures are reasonable but do not reflect value for money considering he is the highest earner (being paid in excess of £300,000-a-week) and cost £47.5million to sign from Manchester City two years ago.
For all his faults, you have to say Sterling is still a more polished player than Mykhailo Mudryk, who has struggled for consistency since joining from Shakhtar Donetsk for an initial £62million in January 2023. As one of nine changes for the 2-0 Conference League qualifying round win over Servette on Thursday night, the Ukraine international was more miss than hit. Even Maresca had to concede that: “He had some good moments and then some moments like flipping a coin. You don’t know if it’s one thing or the other thing. This is Misha. If he can become more consistent, he can take one step forward.”
Mudryk, at 23, has plenty of opportunities to get better, whereas Sterling is 30 in December and struggling to show his best days are not behind him. The former is paid considerably less than Sterling with a salary of £97,000-a-week, surely a factor in Chelsea’s thinking regardless of the insistence it is just a ‘technical decision’.
Noni Madueke, by no means certain to stay, enjoyed a better pre-season than both of them and scored a fine goal against Servette to prove his point.
🤝 @NoniMadueke_ giving us that two-goal cushion. 😁#CFC | #UECL pic.twitter.com/dfqG1oJaUi
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 22, 2024
Ben Chilwell should always be respected for being part of the 2021 Champions League winning team. However, injury has restricted him to 30 Premier League starts in the last three seasons. The England international, 27, is renowned as a traditional left-back/left-wing-back. That does not marry up with how Maresca wants to play, with full-backs asked to invert to a more central role when Chelsea are in possession. Losing his experienced voice is a blow but if he is hardly going to be on the pitch due to fitness issues or selection, it is not a healthy situation for anyone if he stays.
Chilwell is a high earner and doesn’t fit Maresca’s system – it makes sense to sell him (Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)
No-one will dispute that Romelu Lukaku and Kepa Arrizabalaga are two expensive mistakes the hierarchy inherited from their predecessors. The club spent £169.1million on the pair and neither proved their worth. Lukaku, who is subject of transfer talks with Napoli, has no interest in playing for Chelsea again after struggling in his one and only season back at the club in 2021-22 (he was also bought for £18million from Anderlecht in 2011 but was sold to Everton three years later).
The Belgium international scored just 15 times in 44 appearances (in 2021-22). The 31-year-old has been on loan at Inter Milan and Roma since then.
Kepa is not adept at passing out from the back, which is what Maresca demands, nor from keeping the ball out of the net (he conceded 175 goals in 163 appearances for Chelsea).
A decision to loan Armando Broja to Ipswich Town has been made so he is not being ostracised anymore. Carney Chukwuemeka, bought from Aston Villa for £20m in 2022, clearly has talent. But he has made just four starts in two years (mainly due to injury) and with increased competition in attacking midfield, he finds himself up for sale even though he still gets to train with the first team.
David Datro Fofana (four appearances), Angelo Gabriel (no appearances) and Deivid Washington are more purchases made by the Todd Boehly/Clearlake consortium who are available for transfer or a loan. Having spent around £40m on the trio, it is more potentially wasted funds on their hands but that does not mean the decision to leave them out now is the wrong one.
Other names on the list are Under-21 players Alex Matos, Harvey Vale and Tino Anjorin. They are gifted but have never been regarded as regular first-team players anyway so including them is misleading.
So that just leaves Petrovic and Chalobah as the only candidates who perhaps should still be under consideration by Maresca. Petrovic is not the finished article, but he impressed more in the second half of last season than Robert Sanchez did in the first and yet it is the latter who is starting games for Chelsea in 2024-25. Petrovic is now on the transfer/loan list because Chelsea decided to buy Filip Jorgensen from Villarreal to compete with Sanchez.
Chalobah is one of the few players deemed surplus to requirements who has a case for staying (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
No-one would suggest Chalobah is of the calibre of another former Chelsea academy graduate John Terry, but seeing Axel Disasi and Benoit Badiashile consistently struggle at the back makes you question what is going on. The homegrown Chalobah will count as pure profit on the books is a significant factor but at what cost to Chelsea’s defensive record?
It remains to be seen what the squad Maresca has opted for can achieve. There are still weaknesses there as Manchester City and Servette have exposed. But that does not mean, barring a couple of exceptions at most, that the misfits should be welcomed back into the fold.
(Top photo: Maresca waves to the fans after victory over Servette. Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
