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Chelsea and Man Utd weigh up Christopher Nkunku and Alejandro Garnacho transfers

Chelsea and Manchester United are weighing up the possibility of trying to send Christopher Nkunku and Alejandro Garnacho in opposite directions this summer.

Nkunku and Garnacho both want to quit their respective clubs and the prospect of them trading places has not been ruled out, although there is no expectation of a swap deal being negotiated.

Separate transfers involving Nkunku and Garnacho moving in opposite directions would solve headaches for both United and Chelsea, but the clubs are yet to hold direct talks on the matter this summer.

Garnacho has been told he has no future at United under head coach Ruben Amorim and underlined his desire to leave by posting an image of himself wearing an Aston Villa shirt with Marcus Rashford’s name on the back of it.

Villa have been linked with Garnacho, who is said to favour remaining in England and would be expected to jump at the chance to join Chelsea.

Alejandro Garnacho looks dejected

Alejandro Garnacho was unhappy at not starting the Europa League final - Reuters/Vincent West

Chelsea want to sign a left-winger during the summer window with Garnacho part of a three-man list of targets that includes Borussia Dortmund’s Jamie Gittens and Lyon’s Malick Fofana.

Dortmund expect Gittens to move to Chelsea, despite turning down a £42 million bid this month, with talks between the two clubs ongoing and the expectation of a face-to-face meeting in the United States at the Club World Cup.

But Chelsea could sign more than one of their winger targets depending on other business with all options currently considered open. Telegraph Sport last week broke the news that Mykhailo Mudryk has been charged by the Football Association for doping offences and is facing a lengthy ban, while Noni Madueke is attracting plenty of interest.

Chelsea explored a deal for Garnacho, who United value at around £60 million, in the winter transfer window, which prompted interest from Old Trafford in Nkunku, who is well known to the club’s director of recruitment Christopher Vivell.

That interest is said to have been rekindled alongside Chelsea’s ongoing interest in Garnacho, despite United trying to sign Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford.

Vivell was technical director at Chelsea and RB Leipzig, from where Nkunku moved to Stamford Bridge in June 2023 for £52 million.

Nkunku’s impact at Chelsea was held up by injuries before the France international struggled to hold down a regular starting place under the latest head coach Enzo Maresca.

Most naturally a number 10 or a second striker, Nkunku has found himself stuck behind Cole Palmer at Chelsea with Maresca favouring playing a single striker in Nicolas Jackson before the arrival of Liam Delap this summer.

Maresca: Impossible to train in dangerous temperatures

Enzo Maresca has warned it is “almost impossible to train” because of the dangerously high temperature in Philadelphia which is close to hitting 40C.

It has added further concerns to the suitability of holding the Club World Cup in a United States summer and the effect it is having on the players.

In fairness, the heat is unusually high – the highest for 13 years here – with an extreme heat warning and, also, a warning over the air quality being issued by the National Weather Service.

Philadelphia’s department of public health declared a heat health emergency with officials urging people to limit time spent outdoors. Experts warn that at such temperatures heatstroke and heat exhaustion are possible with the added humidity also a factor that will make it feel even hotter.

“It is almost impossible to train or to make a session because of the weather,” the Chelsea head coach said.

“I always try to avoid excuses. I always try to be honest. It’s not about excuses, it’s about reality. It’s an excuse when it’s not hot and we say that it’s hot. That is an excuse. But if hot, it’s hot. It’s difficult to work with these temperatures but we are here and we are trying to do our best and we will try to win tomorrow.”

Enzo Maresca looks on

Enzo Maresca joined in training ahead of Chelsea’s final group game - Getty Images/Darren Walsh

Chelsea face ES Tunis in their final group game on Tuesday needing a draw to finish second in their group and reach the last-16 – where they are likely to face Bayern Munich in Charlotte.

The kick-off time will be 9pm – not the middle of the day as was the last time they played in Philadelphia, losing to Brazilian side Flamengo – but even then the temperature is expected to still be around 34C and feeling like 40C out on the pitch.

Chelsea could only train briefly on Monday morning – with Reece James absent because of an illness and Nicolas Jackson through suspension – as the players were sprayed with water from huge fans by the side of the pitch.

Maresca said: “Now we are trying just to save energy for the game. This morning’s session has been very, very, very short. As you can see, it’s not easy in these conditions with these temperatures. We are going to try to do our best.”

He added: “We are not training almost. We are just doing very, very, very short sessions. We try just to be clinical and do the right things that we need for game preparation. We have the cooling break during the game which helps a little.”

There is also concern over the strain the conditions will put on players who have come through an intense season.

“They said to me this morning that tomorrow will be our 60th game of the season. Just official games,” Maresca said.

“If you put in some pre-season games, it’s even more, but 60 games. The ones [players] who had international games had even more. We try to give them as much time as possible for recovery, to be fit, to be ready for the next step ahead of us.”

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