There are a little less than two weeks left in the summer transfer window, and there are a little more than a dozen Chelsea players who still need their futures sorted during that time. The exact number is a bit hard to define as some might have the option to simply stick around in the under-21 (sorry, “Cobham Next Gen”) squad, but about a dozen senior members of the squad are actively fighting against ending up in the Bomb Squad even after the window slams shut.
Some are getting close to moves. Benoît
Badiashile has landed in Naples and barring any unexpected findings at the medical, should be finalizing his loan move there shortly. Mykhailo Mudryk seems set for a loan as well as he returns from his doping ban, and has been linked with Coventry City. RC Strasbourg are an easy fallback option for him. Coventry have also been linked with Josh Acheampong, and if there’s anyone I’d trust with getting him the minutes his development needs right now, it’s Frank Lampard.
Acheampong could also stay with Chelsea instead, especially if all of Tosin Adarabioyo, Mamadou Sarr, Aarón Anselmino, and Axel Disasi find their own moves. Disasi is of interest at Crystal Palace while Tosin’s trying to reunite with his former Fulham boss, Marco Silva, now at Benfica. Sarr and Anselmino had good things going at Strasbourg and Borussia Dortmund, respectively, last season before we decided to muddle with those situations for no good reason, so hopefully wherever they end up this year, we leave them be.
And speaking of muddled situations, we are still no wiser in figuring out who among our backup strikers, Nicolas Jackson, Liam Delap, and Emmanuel Emegha, stays or goes this season. Jackson’s had interest from the likes of Aston Villa and Atlético Madrid, among others, and while the former look the most likely option, they may be waiting until the very end of the window to avoid any sort of swap-deal designation with the Morgan Rogers transfer from earlier this summer (45-day cooling off period required, apparently, which would last until just before Transfer Deadline Day). There’s also said to be a fair bit of interest in Delap, surprisingly — though without anything too concrete developing just yet — while Emegha’s spot isn’t exactly safe either despite arriving at Chelsea just this summer. Oh and there’s also Marc Guiu, who still hasn’t found any takers despite looking all summer.
Similarly to Guiu, the likes of Gaga Slonina, Omari Kellyman, and Kendry Páez all need something done as well. Slonina could stick around as the third goalkeeper I suppose, but Kellyman and Kendry both need minutes. The former did well in the Championship last season with Cardiff City so it shouldn’t be a problem for him to find a good loan even at this late stage. Kendry, on the other hand, has struggled since finalizing his move to Chelsea and was doing so badly at River Plate that they’ve dropped him from the squad entirely. He’s training alone and just waiting for a train that might never come. (Trabzonspor were supposedly interested, but now they are not.) More recently, I was reminded of one Deivid Washingon, who’s potentially going to Strasbourg after his more ambitious moves had fallen through.
Of, and of course, we cannot completely forget about Enzo Fernández, Pedro Neto, and Malo Gusto, who could all yet take star turns in the rumor mill over the next fortnight.
It’s a good thing we a million sporting directors.
