Chelsea and £10m a year star stuck in deadlock that hurts both – and nobody wants him | OneFootball

Fabrizio Romano made it very clear last week that Chelsea’s priority in this January window was sales – in particular the sales of two English squad players who are barely featuring at the moment.

Both Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka were on the transfer list in the summer, but time ran out before a move could be found for either of them.

That’s led to a pretty depressing 6 months where both have sat around waiting for the occasional 5 minute cameo in the Conference League, presumably counting the days until January arrives and the window opens. Romano says he expects both to go, but it may not as as simple as that – especially in the case of Chilwell.

The full back is on a monster £200,000 a week at the moment, and of course after so long out of the team no other team is willing to pay anything close to that, claim the Sun.

Ben Chilwell of Chelsea looks on during warm up ahead of the Carabao Cup Third Round match against Barrow. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Chilwell and Chelsea in financial stand-off which hurts them both

To make things even more tricky, his deal runs until 2027, so the club are likely to want to get a good fee for him. One can see why he ended up staying put in the summer, despite it being very clear that he’s not wanted.

Something got to give – either he’s got to drop his wage demands, or Chelsea have to let him go essentially for free. Otherwise there’s a deadlock which sees Chilwell wasting his career and the club wasting money on a player who they don’t want to use.

Given how long is left on the deal, a loan move to help amortise his value and bring him closer to the end of his contract could be on the cards – but even that requires finding a taker with money.