Chelsea make huge £40m transfer decision as Enzo Maresca stance perfectly clear
Chelsea will not allow Carney Chukwuemeka to leave permanently this month for any less than his £40million release clause, football.london understands.
The 21-year-old has been told by Enzo Maresca on numerous occasions that he should look to leave in order to play more regular football. Back in September, the Chelsea head coach said: "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. Unfortunately that didn't happen. He is our player. He had some minutes the other day, today he was not involved. Hopefully, we can give him more minutes."
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While Chukwuemeka has a £40million release clause that could be activated this month, the club would also consider sending him on loan to continue his development. The midfielder has five appearances to his name in all competitions for the Blues this season with four coming in the UEFA Conference League and one in the Carabao Cup.
Of those five appearances, however, only one has been a start and that was when he was part of a makeshift XI that travelled to Kazakhstan last month. Chukwuemeka has only recorded 130 minutes in total for Chelsea this season and it is clear for the talented former Aston Villa midfielder that his immediate future looks to be away from Stamford Bridge.
Elsewhere, Chelsea could allow Cesare Casadei to leave the club on loan this month. There has been interest from Italy with Monza and Torino both expressing their fondness of the Italy Under-21 international, football.london understands.
Chelsea are not looking to sell Casadei, who has been impressive for the Blues in the Conference League this season. However, the former Inter Milan midfielder is yet to feature at all for the west Londoners in the Premier League under his fellow Italian countryman Maresca.
