The latest twist in a summer packed with surprises at Chelsea could see one of their most experienced English players jump ship to rivals Manchester City.
Chelsea began the summer by parting company with manager Mauricio Pochettino, with the club moving to replace him with Enzo Maresca, who had just led Leicester City to the Championship title.
Since then, it’s been a whirlwind of transfer activity at Stamford Bridge, with £54million Pedro Neto becoming the club’s ninth signing of the summer. A host of homegrown players have left the club in order to ease the club’s PSR position, although Conor Gallagher’s move to Atletico Madrid appears to have hit the rocks with the player set to return to the UK after spending five days in Spain waiting for the move to be completed.
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And now another familiar face could be on the way out, as TEAMtalk claim that Manchester City could make a move for their long-term target Ben Chillwell, following a blunt assessment of the left-back from Maresca.
Chilwell has been hoping that he would be able to turn the page on an injury-hit season and make a mark under Maresca, but the 27-year-old does not appear to fit into the Italian’s style of play and has been sidelined for most of the preseason.
“Chilly is left-back, for sure,” Maresca told journalist Ben Jacobs last month. “The Chilly situation is a bit delicate. We are trying to find a solution for him in terms of a position. He probably needs a bit of time. By delicate I mean in terms of finding his best position, not in terms of [his future at the club].
“We want players that can perform at 100 percent in their positions. I am sure, for instance, Malo [Gusto] and Reece [James] can both do the work required of them in the next two-three days and they can both finish with more assists, or be more dangerous, than they were in the past.
“In that position, they are good enough to make ‘last passes’ or get some assists because their quality is very good.”
TEAMtalk add that Chilwell ‘has taken an exceedingly dim view’ of these suggestions that he does not have the quality to be a first-team regular and that he is open to leaving the club, with Chelsea ready to sell him for the right price.
City are long-term admirers of Chilwell and while their current stance on bringing in the defender is ‘unclear’ the report adds that Chelsea’s asking price would be in the £40million mark.
That fee is well above Chilwell’s £24million Transfermarkt valuation and in FourFourTwo’s opinion, would make this a non-starter, as City have not built the squad they have by overspending on injury-hit players of that age.
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