What Chelsea’s starting team could look like in the 2025/26 season based on recent transfer rumours.
Keeping track of the way Chelsea plan to approach the summer transfer window is arguably more challenging than it is for any other club. Not only have they been deeply unpredictable in their dealings since the current owners took charge, but the club’s name ends up being attached to just about every transfer story going.
Were Chelsea to make a bid for every player whose names has been connected with them in the gossip columns, they’d spend the GDP of a small country this summer. Clearly, they can’t buy everyone (although you wouldn’t put it past them to try…) but as we spend a considerable amount of time going through transfer rumours, reliable and implausible alike, we thought it made sense to give Blues fans an idea of what Enzo Maresca’s side might look like next season.
Based on the more persistent, plausible and well-sourced stories doing the rounds, this is a £540m starting XI that we could easily see as the club begin the 2025/26 Premier League campaign – but will Chelsea be able to constrain themselves to just three new signings?
Goalkeeper & Defence
GK: Đorđe Petrović (£14m); LB: Marc Cucurella (£62m), RB: Malo Gusto (£30m), CB: Levi Colwill (home-grown), Marc Guéhi (£50m*)
One signing that Chelsea will almost definitely make is a new centre-half, and as always just about every big name on the market has been suggested – but some are unlikely, they seem to be behind Real Madrid in the race to buy Dean Huijsen, and a deal for Guéhi makes so much sense that we believe it remains probable.
The Crystal Palace centre-half is a Chelsea academy graduate, has hinted at being open to a return, and is likely to be available for a reasonable price as he has just one year left on his current contract at Selhurst Park. The stars seem to be well-aligned.
As we get closer to the summer, the odds on a new signing between the sticks seem to be getting longer. Đorđe Petrović’s form on loan at RC Strasbourg means that he may well be given a second chance to win the starting spot, even though Bayer Leverkusen are allegedly interested in doing a deal for him. With Mike Penders joining, too, we suspect that Chelsea will hold their powder on buying a new goalkeeper for one more year.
We do also think that Chelsea will look for reinforcements at full-back, but they may be signing depth players rather than starters and the players they bring in will depend on their success selling unwanted players like Axel Disasi. A deal for Barcelona’s Jules Koundé, which has been a gossip column favourite, seems unlikely with Barça unwilling to sell as it stands.
Midfield
DM: Enzo Fernández (£107m), Moisés Caicedo (£115m); AM:Cole Palmer (£42m)
Don’t expect Maresca’s first-choice midfield to look very different next year. This is the most settled and consistently impressive part of the team, an immense amount of money has already been spent on it, and Chelsea don’t seem to be looking for new starters.
A young depth addition is a definite possibility, with occasional question marks over the future of the routinely-injured Roméo Lavia, but we doubt we see any seriously expensive splashes in midfield or at number ten. If they do add anyone new, it will be because they found yet another young player and they couldn’t help themselves for bringing them on board. Even if Chelsea tighten their belt to a degree this summer, we’d be surprised if they can supress their magpie tendencies entirely.
Forwards
LW: Jamie Gittens (£40m*), RW: Pedro Neto (£50m); CF:Liam Delap (£30m*)
Not for the first time, Chelsea are set to spend big money on some new wingers, although the number of new faces will again depend on how successful they are at getting rid of the old ones – the club will do their best to shift João Félix and there’s even a chance they’ll move on from Noni Madueke, but they may not make as much from such deals as they want.
In any case, guessing which of the many left wingers they have been linked with is a challenge. Jamie Gittens’ name has come up so often and from so many different sources that we believe the interest to be entirely genuine, but João Pedro from Brighton appears to be an option, too, and the club could end up going in any number of different directions. £40m is a low-end guess at Gittens’ eventual price tag.
Up front, a new striker is nailed on and they seem to have Liam Delap’s name very high up on their list – not that they’re alone in that. Victor Osimhen remains a possibility but the powers that be don’t want to pay his wages if they can avoid it, while just about all the other big-name centre-forwards on the market could end up as options. The striker market will move quickly and lurch in unexpected directions this summer, with so many big teams looking for a new number nine.
For now, though, we’re predicting a slightly more settled starting line-up next season, with just three new faces and relatively little churn, at least by Chelsea’s standards – between PSR concerns and a bloated squad, we think the real priority will be offloading players and continuing to stock up on future talent, of which plenty is already coming. But will Chelsea keep it sensible and restrain themselves? We’ll find out soon…
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