Evening Standard
·6 January 2025
In partnership with
Yahoo sportsEvening Standard
·6 January 2025
Blues exploring options to strengthen at centre-back amid injuries to Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana
Torino are in negotiations with Chelsea over a deal to sign midfielder Cesare Casadei this month.
No agreement has yet been reached but Casadei is one of a number of players the Blues will listen to offers for as they continue to trim the edges of their squad.
The 21-year-old’s development has stalled since he was recalled early from a promising loan spell at Leicester this time last year.
There, Casadei had been playing regularly under now Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, but he has struggled for impact this season behind the likes of Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia.
Cesare Casadei is one of a number of players who could leave Chelsea this month
Getty Images
The Italian has not played a minute of Premier League football this term and only made the bench in four of Chelsea’s 20 matches.
He did feature in five of the club’s Conference League group stage games, but only three of those were starts and he appears likely to struggle for regular football during the second half of the campaign.
Casadei was signed from Inter Milan’s youth ranks as a teenager in the summer of 2022 and could now be in line for a return to his homeland.
Maresca has shared minutes across his entire squad during the first half of his debut season and will rotate heavily for the FA Cup third-round tie with Morecambe this weekend, but may not be quite so wholesale in his rotation once the European knockout stages begin in March.
Chelsea are not expected to be overly busy in this month’s transfer window, though they are exploring options to strengthen at centre-back amid injuries to Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana.
That could include recalling Trevoh Chalobah from his loan spell at Crystal Palace, though no decision over whether to activate a clause has yet been made.
Chelsea have an option to recall Trevoh Chalobah from his loan spell at Crystal Palace
REUTERS
As well as Casadei, Chelsea are also ready to let Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka leave before the window closes.
Chilwell was part of the summer’s infamous “bomb squad”, a group of players forced to train separately having been informed they were not part of Maresca’s plans.
However, Chelsea failed to find a buyer and the left-back was eventually integrated back into first-team training but has made just one appearance this term, against Barrow in the Carabao Cup.
Chukwuemeka has made just one start, in the Conference League away to Astana, and has been linked with a move to West Ham, who are also monitoring Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s situation.