by As one of the teams with the largest squads in European football, Chelsea have made clear they would like to move on some of their talent. While the club has done a good job of moving on emerging players from the youth team and academy, they also wish to move on some of the older players. The likes of Emerson are expected to leave, but other players are also believed to have been told to move on and find new clubs.
Chief among them is Michy Batshuayi. The Belgian joined from Olympique Marseille to much fanfare, but has failed to make his place his own. A series of loans have taken place since arriving at Stamford Bridge, and the striker now looks set to move on to Turkish football. Besiktas are believed to be close to making the deal permanent.
However, fans jokes that the club should keep the Belgian after a five-goal performance in a 13-0 win against Weymouth in a friendly.
That being said, the player is close to completing the deal to Turkey and will leave Chelsea with another spot to fill within the squad. With more focus put on academy talent at present, it is likely the Blues will look to remove some of the more experienced squad names to make space for other players.
One forward who has definitely left, though, is Tammy Abraham. The striker signed a deal with AS Roma, joining former Blues legend Jose Mourinho in the Italian capital. With a deal expected to be around £35m, Cheslea have turned an academy prospect into a huge fee.
The deal, though, does include a buy-back fee with a trigger of around £68m to bring the Blues fan back home.
What did Tammy Abraham say about his exit?
When asked about why he chose to leave Chelsea for Roma, Abraham said: “You can sense when a club really wants you – and Roma made their interest clear immediately,
“Roma is a club that deserves to be fighting for titles and trophies. I’ve had the experience of winning major trophies and I want to be in those competitions again – so I want to help this team to achieve that and get to the level where Roma should be.
“It’s a massive honour to be the number nine at this club and I just can’t wait to get started and to help the team.”
Chelsea supremo Marina Granovskaia said: “Tammy will always be welcomed back at Stamford Bridge as one of our own.”
Other names who have been linked with exits include the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has failed to fire after a hugely impressive start to his life as a professional. Kurt Zouma is also believed to be available, though it would come down to whether or not Chelsea could prise A-grade target Jules Kounde from Sevilla.
Expect more exits to come, though, as the Blues look to thin down the squad to focus more on quality as opposed to quantity.
