Chelsea have enjoyed a busy start to the summer transfer window, and long may it continue. Following the appointment of Mauricio Pochettino, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart were instructed to trim down the squad ready for pre-season.
The former Tottenham boss, who officially begins his new role as head coach on Tuesday, will be hoping that the large majority of want-away players will have been sold ahead of his first day at Cobham. The Blues' pair of sporting directors have already managed to offload seven players, raking in over £200million for their efforts.
N'Golo Kante was the first to depart, accepting a lucrative offer in Saudi Arabia following the expiration of his contract at Stamford Bridge. Edouard Mendy jetted off to the Middle East too, and he was almost joined by Hakim Ziyech and Romelu Lukaku.
However, the former failed a medical, while the latter demands a return to Italy. Mateo Kovacic, who had just one-year remaining on his contract, joined Manchester City in a deal worth £25m, while Kai Havertz controversially put pen to paper on a deal with Arsenal.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has completed a move to AC Milan and Mason Mount is said to be on his way to Manchester United. While Winstanley and Stewart have been working hard to trim down the squad ahead of Pochettino's arrival, Chelsea have managed to wrap up a handful of exciting signings too, with Moises Caicedo expected to follow the likes of Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku.
Chelsea have already managed to conduct as much business in the last two weeks as their rivals could do in the next two months. But, the Blues have shown no sign of slowing down and the mass exodus is expected to continue.
According to the Evening Standard, the west Londoners are preparing to launch step two of their summer transfer plan in a bid to raise a further £100million. The report states that Lukaku, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Trevoh Chalobah, Cesar Azpilicueta and Marc Cucurella have all been marked as saleable assets.
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While Chelsea may struggle to offload Lukaku, Aubameyang and Cucurella, Pulisic and Chalobah could fly off the shelf. Ironically, the former has been heavily linked with a move to AC Milan, while the latter seems to be closing in one a switch to Inter.
