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Enzo Maresca's Chelsea transfer admission means club cannot be forced into silly January mistake

Enzo Maresca
-Credit:Chris Lee - Chelsea FC


It looks for all of the world that Ben Chilwell will leave Chelsea at some point over the next few weeks.

The 28-year-old is not part of Enzo Maresca's plans at Stamford Bridge. The Chelsea head coach has told Chilwell that behind the scenes and also during press conferences on several occasions this season.

"There are players that unfortunately didn't play a lot with us in all the competitions like Chilwell, like Carney [Chukwuemeka]," Maresca said last month. "Probably they are the first [to say] that they want to leave because they train every day, because they want to play games and if they don't play games probably they are thinking of leaving.

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"Each player is a bit different situation, so we're going to see if some of them are coming and knocking on the door to say 'I want to leave' or something like that. We will try to find a solution."

Chilwell has been at Chelsea for almost five years now, joining the club in August 2020 for an estimated £45million from Leicester City. However, this season, he has been exiled from the first-team squad - playing just 45 minutes in all competitions in one appearance - with Maresca preferring the other left-back options in Marc Cucurella and Renato Veiga.

There have, though, been some rumours about Veiga and his future at Stamford Bridge. The Portugal international, signed from FC Basel last summer, has played 17 times for Chelsea in all competitions this season but only seven of them have come in the Premier League - with just one start to his name in the top-flight.

Veiga has been an ever-present figure in Chelsea's UEFA Conference League run - that saw the Blues end their league phase campaign with a 100% record. As is the case with many of the so-called fringe players, like Veiga, there is a concern they will not be used for as much now with the knockout phase of the Conference League not getting underway until March.

Such concern has led to speculation over the 21-year-old's future in west London. Wolves and Bournemouth have been named in recent reports as clubs with an interest in the £12million signing's signature. Either way, Chelsea surely cannot afford to allow Veiga to leave this month.

With Chilwell first of all, not trusted and secondly, likely to leave, there would be no cover for Cucurella at left-back. Yes, Malo Gusto can be used on the left-hand side but the Frenchman has also proved he cannot be relied upon with his tendency to pick up muscular injuries on a relatively frequent basis.

Caleb Wiley could be recalled from his loan spell at Strasbourg; something that would allow Carney Chukwuemeka to move to France on a temporary basis. Strasbourg, owned by BlueCo, is an option for Chukwuemeka this month, football.london understands, but the Blues would need to recall one of their three players - Wiley, Andrey Santos or Djordje Petrovic - from Stade de la Meinau in order to comply with FIFA regulations.

However, Wiley, who is just 20-years-old, is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury. While he is on his way back, Wiley has missed the last five matches because of the injury, so he is not in the best condition either.

Chelsea need to think long and hard before making a hasty - and potentially costly - decision regarding Veiga.