Chelsea may need to think outside the box to facilitate Ben Chilwell‘s departure this month, as the defender is reportedly unwilling to accept a wage reduction to exit the club.
Chilwell, who transferred to Chelsea from Leicester in 2020 for £50million, still has two and a half years remaining on his £190,000 weekly contract.
He has been sidelined by Enzo Maresca, who has made it clear that he doesn’t see a future for him at Stamford Bridge.
The left-back was omitted from the squad for the Conference League – a tournament where Chelsea have given their fringe players some game time – and his only appearance this season was a 45-minute stint in a 5-0 Carabao Cup victory over Barrow.
The 28-year-old is frustrated by his lack of playing time but is equally reluctant to give up his lucrative contract to assist the club that awarded it to him.
As a result, The Sun suggests that Chelsea might need to offer Chilwell a severance package or arrange a heavily subsidised loan deal to move him to another club during the January transfer window.
He is one of five players identified for a move this month, including Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei, Harvey Vale and Alex Matos. Chukwuemeka, who cost Chelsea £20m from Aston Villa in 2022, has barely played under Maresca, with the ex-Leicester manager preferring to work with a select group of players.
The Blues boss has recently shed light on the frustrations within his squad, particularly highlighting the situations of Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka.
“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 that want to leave as they work every day, they train every day, they want to play games – and if they don’t play games they are thinking of leaving.
“So we’re going to see if some of them are coming to knock on the door and say I want to leave. For each player it’s a different situation.”
Chilwell’s limited game time last season, with only 13 Premier League appearances due to hamstring and knee injuries, compounded the challenge of securing a transfer after being overlooked for England’s Euro 2024 squad.
The lack of minutes on the pitch means that finding a new club in January could still be problematic, despite previous interest from Manchester United.
Previously relegated to training separately from the main squad as part of Chelsea‘s ‘bomb squad’, aimed at encouraging certain players to move on, Chilwell’s future was addressed by Maresca in September.
“We are going to sit with him and find a solution because he is the only one. He is probably going to be back with us in a training session, we will see, because right now he is not training with us,” he explained.
When asked about the possibility of Chilwell rejoining the group, Maresca confirmed: “The reason why he is training apart is because the idea was for him to leave but because he didn’t find a solution, he is probably going to start to train with us.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk