€355m worth of talent? The unwanted stars that Chelsea will likely sell in 2025

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Up for sale 

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While many clubs around Europe’s top five leagues will be planning to blow the dust off their cheque books with the clear intention of adding new players to their squads over the course of January, one Premier League side in particular will likely spend the next few weeks looking to offload as many players as they can. We are, of course, talking about Chelsea, who have a truly remarkable number of players on their books that they either can’t play or have no intention of playing in the second half of the season. 

Since the Stamford Bridge side were sold to Todd Boehly & Co. in 2022, Chelsea have undertaken one of the most audacious transfer policies in the history of football. Over the course of the last two and a half season, the London club have spent €1.3 billion on new players, which is almost twice as much as the next highest spenders in the sports in that period of time, Paris Saint Germain, whose own spending spree stands at just €771.4m in comparison. That money led to no less than 85 players joining the club over the course of five transfer windows. And while some of the new signings have unquestionably gone on to become important players for the club, it has also led to manager Enzo Maresca taking a hatchet to what was undoubtedly a bloated squad. 

€355.5m worth of talent for sale?

So how many players in Chelsea’s current squad could be moved on in this month’s transfer window? When we consider the current Chelsea squad that Maresca has to pick from and then filter down to players that have only played 20 percent or less of the available league games for the club this season, it still leaves a remarkable number of players that have so far been exempt from the first team plans. In fact, there are so many players that we can make a full starting XI of Chelsea stars that have played a minimum amount of league football, which comes in at a combined market value of €230m. This group of players includes young stars like Carney Chukwuemeka (market value: €15m), Cesare Casadei (€10m) and Renato Veiga (€10m) that have all been linked with departures from the club this month. But it also stars a number of established names, such as Ben Chilwell (€20m), Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall (€28m), Benoît Badiashile (€28m), Reece James (€30m) and João Félix (30m), as well as Mykhaylo Mudryk (€30m), who is currently suspended for allegedly taking a performance-enhancing substance. 

What makes Chelsea’s great reserve of unwanted players even more impressive is that alongside this entire team of players that aren’t getting game time in Maresca’s squad this season is a whole list of players out on loan but still technically on the books at the London club. As the list above shows, this includes a number of big names such as Andrey Santos (€25m), Lesley Ugochukwu (€25m), Raheem Sterling (€22m) and Djordje Petrovic (€18m). Of course, this also includes a number of young stars that are simply picking up necessary game time at other clubs, like Bashir Humphreys (€5.5m) and Caleb Wiley (€8m), but for the most part the list of Chelsea players that are on loan at other clubs are established, senior footballers that are likely to never play regularly for the club’s starting XI in the future. And, as a result, will probably be sold when a suitable offer is made in the summer transfer window, or perhaps even further down the line. 

How much money have Chelsea earned from player sales? 

While this may seem like an odd way to run a football club, it has in fact become standard practice for the Stamford Bridge side for quite some time. Under the previous owners, Chelsea were famous for hoarding young talents and selling them at the right time to finance the signing of first team players and that hasn’t really changed under the new administration. Since the club changed owners in 2022, Chelsea have earned just under €545m in player sales, which is the highest return for any club in the world in that period of time. This includes the sale of big stars, such as Kai Havertz (€75m move to Arsenal) and Mason Mount (€64m move to Manchester United) last season, as well as the sale of big names like Ian Maatsen’s €44.5m move to Aston Villa or Conor Gallagher’s €42m move to Atlético Madrid in the summer transfer window. As such, it will likely come as no great surprise to Chelsea fans if the club bid farewell to a number of senior players between now and the end of the month.