After the dust settled on a busy summer, some of Chelsea’s unwanted players had secured moves away, and others hadn’t.
One of the bigger names in that latter group is Ben Chilwell. The left back is one of the club’s top earners, on a reported £250,000 a week deal signed under the old ownership. Now he’s essentially third choice left back, stuck behind the previously derided Marc Cucurella and a £12m unknown from Basel.
It’s not great for Chilwell, who is finally injury free and wants to play regularly. It’s not great for Chelsea, who won’t want to use him and certainly don’t want to pay him. But a solution wasn’t found in the summer, and we don’t have high hopes for January either.
Chelsea’s policy in these situation has tended to be to turn down loan offers and hold out for a permanent deal. In some cases (as with Romelu Lukaku last year) the rules can be broken just through necessity. We wonder if that could be the case again this winter because of Chilwell’s huge financial burden on the wage bill.
Interest in England left back is there – but at what price point?
There is certainly interest in Chilwell. Manchester United have long been linked, and today we hear from CaughtOffside that Napoli are joining the race too, with Antonio Conte leading one of his standard Premier League recruitment drives.
The 27 year old might just love it – he’s a cultured guy. What could be better than a spell in Naples, competing for the Serie A title and living it up in Europe? It all fits, apart from the salary. It will ultimately come down to Chilwell and how much of a pay cut he is willing to take. It’s a long shot – but don’t rule it out just yet.
