Chelsea have already acquired six new players this January and are showing few signs of stopping there. The Blues have already seen Benoit Badiashile, Mykhailo Mudryk and Joao Felix make an impact on the pitch, supporters have had a fleeting view of David Datro Fofana while Andrey Santos is with Brazil's under-20 side at the moment and Noni Madueke awaits his first opportunity.
football.london understands another approach will be made to Benfica for Enzo Fernandez and that preliminary talks with Lyon over a move for full-back Malo Gusto. Chelsea's squad is showing few signs of getting smaller.
The Blues have only seen Eddie Beach and Teddy Sharman-Lowe head in the opposite direction, with the development squad players heading out on loan. While the likes of Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic have been linked to transfers, Graham Potter rubbished the prospect of the latter leaving, while the former has started consecutive Premier League matches for the first time this term in his most recent outings.
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Potter himself recently hinted a large squad could prove problematic.
He said: “We’ve got to be, not necessarily careful, but you’ve got to understand we’ve got ten or eleven players unavailable and you can’t just sign players to replace those because then you’d have a squad of 30 and that is a problem.
"So you have to do the right thing and look at what the right solutions are. Sometimes they are not aligned completely as you’d like them because the January window is complicated. But always my job is to try to support the club, make the right decisions, and help the team improve.”
Currently, Chelsea list 31 players within their first team and could yet be set for more in the next seven days. Problems are already set to arise when it the club's Champions League squad is announced, with the Blues only able to register three new senior players, and two players will already need to be left out from the group Chelsea named in September to facilitate that.
Premier League issues should not arise with under-21 players eligible over the 25-man squad limit. However, given Potter's concerns, there will be a requirement to slim down the squad whether that be in January or the summer. That will come with the additional issue of other teams also knowing that.
That could see Chelsea's negotiations prove difficult as interested clubs look to earn themselves a cut-price deal. Some pressure may be alleviated through out of contract players, if they or Chelsea choose not to extend their deals. Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Thiago Silva are all in the last six months of their contracts but could still play significant roles before then.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic all have contracts that will expire in 2024. This summer could see the club's last opportunity to extract value from sales for those players, unless they extend their deals. That will also impact the value the Blues will be able to garner from interested parties.
The summer is sure to bring new transfer priorities for the recruitment team, but forming the squad into a manageable number will also prove to be a key and difficult proposition.
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