Aston Villa academy product set for transfer after being told by manager to leave
Chelsea midfielder and Aston Villa academy product Carney Chukwuemeka is of interest to Premier League rivals Everton and West Ham United this month, according to reports, after being told by Blues boss Enzo Maresca that he should leave Stamford Bridge.
Chukwuemeka, 21, left Villa for Chelsea in the summer transfer window of 2022 for a fee in the region of £20m having lifted the FA Youth Cup in Villa colours in 2021. Midfielder Chukwuemeka as a teenager from Northampton Town. Things haven't worked out quite like Chukwuemeka might've liked it at Chelsea, though.
Two-and-a-half years after joining the club, and although Chukwuemeka has contended with injuries in that time, he has still only accumulated 32 appearances in all competitions - five of those have come this term, with one against Barrow in the EFL Cup and the remainder in the Europa Conference League.
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Chukwuemeka, who is highly regarded in the England set up, was told in the aftermath of the summer transfer window by Maresca in no uncertain terms that he should've left the club while he had the chance, in order to spark his career back into life with many avenues to the Chelsea first-team blocked off.
"I will say exactly the same thing I have said many times: Carney is a very good player, but for the amount of players we have, we decided at the beginning of the season it is probably better to leave and go somewhere, prove himself and playing 30 or 35 games than being here and play less games," Maresca said at the time. "Unfortunately that didn't happen. He is our player."
Various reports now have linked both Everton and West Ham with Chukwuemeka; the Toffees have only just marked the return of David Moyes, who has inherited Tim Iroegbunam in his squad, although he has been injured since early October and is yet to return to action. West Ham, meanwhile, are now under the tutelage of Graham Potter, and they're eager to add another midfielder this month.
Glasgow pair Celtic and Rangers and, bizarrely, Villa themselves, have also been linked with moves for Chukwuemeka since the closure of the summer window.
