Chelsea may face an uphill battle in their efforts to offload Ben Chilwell this January, with the 28-year-old left-back unwilling to take a pay cut to secure a move away from Stamford Bridge.
Chilwell, who joined the Blues for £50 million from Leicester in 2020, still has two and a half years remaining on his £190,000-per-week contract. However, Head coach Enzo Maresca has frozen him out of the first-team picture and made it clear that Chilwell no longer figures in his plans.
The coach omitted the defender from the squad for Chelsea’s Conference League fixtures, a competition in which the club has given playing time to fringe players. His sole appearance this season came in a 5-0 Carabao Cup win over Barrow, where he played just 45 minutes. The lack of playing time has left Chilwell frustrated, but he is reportedly unwilling to give up his lucrative salary in order to facilitate a departure.
According to The Sun, Chelsea may have to pay Chilwell off with a severance package or arrange a heavily subsidised loan deal to move him on this month. The club has identified him as one of five players, along with Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei, Harvey Vale, and Alex Matos, for potential departures. Chukwuemeka, who joined for £20 million from Aston Villa in 2022, has also barely featured under Maresca.
The Chelsea manager recently acknowledged the situation, stating: “There are players that unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions, like Chilwell, like Carney. Probably they are the first that want to leave as they work every day, they train every day, they want to play games – and if they don’t play games they are thinking of leaving.”
Injury setbacks have compounded Chilwell’s struggles to secure a move. He made just 13 Premier League appearances last season due to hamstring and knee issues, which also contributed to him missing out on a place in England’s Euro 2024 squad. These injury concerns, coupled with his lack of game time, make it difficult for Chelsea to find a suitor for the defender, despite previous interest from Manchester United.
The player was previously part of Chelsea’s “bomb squad,” a group of players forced to train away from the main squad in an attempt to move them on. In September, Maresca explained: “We are going to sit with him and find a solution because he is the only one. He is probably going to be back with us in a training session, we will see, because right now he is not training with us.”
Despite the challenges, Chilwell may now be re-integrated into training with the main group, as Chelsea looks for a way to resolve the situation.
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