Trevoh Chalobah has continuously had to prove himself worthy of a spot in Chelsea's first-team squad since his surprise breakthrough in the summer of 2021.
Running alongside that positive emergence though, he has been linked with a move away. In 2021 it was a potential loan to Valencia, in 2022 a potential loan to RB Leipzig. Now, it is Champions League finalists Inter Milan that have come calling for his signature.
Chalobah might have been incapable of arresting a dramatic underperformance by Chelsea in the 2022/23 season, but there was still enough evidence to prove his worthiness over others. This link and potential exit would come to represent a widespread issue within a club that at times seems to undervalue their homegrown talents, whilst those across Europe reap the rewards of their long-term development.
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After returning from a third loan away from Stamford Bridge in 2021, not having made a competitive appearance yet, it felt inevitable a permanent departure would be imminent for the then 22-year-old. But an impressive pre-season and a few variables made his future path a different one. Kurt Zouma was sold to West Ham, whilst an expected move for Jules Kounde from Sevilla fell through with the centre-back moving to Barcelona instead.
Chalobah's freshman year as a Chelsea senior was overwhelmingly positive. He remained a frequent figure in Tuchel's back-three, playing a role in the strongest set of performances before Christmas, starring alongside Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger. He would play in two cup finals against Liverpool over 120 minutes at Wembley and not concede a goal. When he started, Chelsea did not lose a game in 90 minutes across the 2021/22 season, a run that would last until October 2022. A large enough sample size to take note of.
31 appearances were significant for a player completely out of the picture only a year before. But there were some questions looming towards the end of the campaign. Despite playing well, Tuchel would suddenly omit Chalobah from the starting lineup in the closing weeks of the season, only playing three of the last 11 Premier League fixtures.
In two of those three, Chelsea won and kept a clean sheet, whilst more experienced heads like Cesar Azpilicueta faltered, and made costly errors, but retained their place. This trend continued into the summer and the beginning of the following season, where he would only start one of Tuchel's last seven games in charge. This is what prompted a suggestion of an exit, again he was being pushed to the fringes without much reason.
Tuchel's sacking opened the door for Chalobah's return under Graham Potter where he would start the next seven league games, play in the four remaining Champions League group games and the Carabao Cup.
The second half of this season has seen Chalobah's versatility come to the fore, having to fill in at right-back in Reece James' absence and doing a competent job at that. But even after proving to be a player of value and reliability in a squad defined by its continued underperformance, it would not be shocking to see him move on.
Why? It feels apt that a report of Brighton's £30million bid for Levi Colwill being rejected by Chelsea emerged on the same day as Inter's interest in Chalobah. Here are two Cobham graduates, both defenders, who are probably right to consider their futures. Even if Chalobah has become a first-team member, making 63 appearances, the club spending close to £150million on new defenders since last summer sends a message.
It also reflects how Cobham graduates are treated when they are always deemed first to be used to cover up for gaps within a lineup. Chalobah shifted to right-back and Lewis Hall, a midfielder by trade, deployed at left-back. Although this proves the rounded nature of the players the academy produce, it also feels unfair when contrasted with the severe failings of older, more expensive additions that have not lived up to the hype.
What would Chelsea gain by keeping Chalobah? A clearly reliable and versatile talent who has proven capable of performing to a high level and has years of development ahead of him. What do you gain by keeping Kalidou Kouliably or Azpilicueta? Very little if we strip away reputation and purely look at their recent performances across the past season. The same analysis can be done by asking that question for Ian Maatsen or Marc Cucurella.
This is the choice Chelsea's under-fire ownership faces this summer, just as their predecessors did. In 2021, Chelsea chose to sell Marc Guehi to Crystal Palace for £20million. They chose to sell Fikayo Tomori to AC Milan for under £30million. in both cases, those players have gone on to become regular starters and in the case of Guehi, will likely be sold for a lot more by Steve Parish.
In 2021 it was easy for the club and fans to look at the next six weeks after a Champions League triumph and dismiss younger talent. There was little time for sentiment and the list of clubs lining up for Cobham players made the club a lot of money. But why can they make that money easily? When the likes of Hakim Ziyech, Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Christian Pulisic and others do not attract the same interest?
The level of clubs coming in for these players are not stupid. They can see the current and future value of those players. And at the same time, it is completely understandable why Levi Colwill will look at what Guehi and Tomori have done since leaving and see the great benefits compared to the consistently chaotic Chelsea plan which has jumped from one expensive failure to the next since 2017.
Chalobah might think similarly. 'If I am always going to be the first cast to the fringes for someone more expensive, why not make the jump to a huge Italian club that is willing to invest in me properly?'
People may dismiss the faith in academy talent as purely sentimental, which to fans it may be. But in the case of Chalobah, it is all about value and output. It is about basic competence in squad building and rewarding players who perform well more consistently than not, rather than compensating for ones who do not.
If Chelsea fail to grasp that, then it is little shock that such promising players see their futures best placed elsewhere.
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