Crystal Palace and Chelsea often do business with each other.
The south Londoners have previously signed the likes of Patrick Bamford, Loic Remy, Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah and Ben Chilwell on loan from the Blues, also taking Marc Guehi in a permanent move back in July 2021.
However, a new development at Selhurst Park now strongly suggests Crystal Palace will not be turning to Chelsea in their quest to bolster the left-back department.
Borna Sosa bid suggests Chelsea are back to square one with Ben Chilwell
The Athletic now state that Crystal Palace have made a bid to sign Borna Sosa from Ajax – who cost the Dutch giants £7m – as Oliver Glasner aims to find a backup option for Tyrick Mitchell.
That role had been temporarily plugged by the arrival of Chilwell on loan from Chelsea in February, but the 28-year-old played just 395 minutes of action.
Enzo Maresca has been keen to offload the England international permanently for some time – handing him just one appearance last season, and leaving the defender out of his FIFA Club World Cup squad entirely.
Having signed Chilwell on loan and ultimately winning the FA Cup, many would have assumed Crystal Palace would be the likeliest to take the 28-year-old and his £200,000-a-week salary off Chelsea’s hands, but the bid for Sosa, who some compare to David Beckham, now firmly suggests Glasner has other ideas.
Chelsea may not be able to register new signings unless Ben Chilwell is sold
UEFA just slapped Chelsea with a fine – totalling £26.7m – after the Blues were found to have breached their financial rules.
Crucially, the sanction also states that the Blues must end the summer transfer window with a ‘positive balance’ or they run the risk of not being able to register new signings.
As of now, Chelsea are roughly £191m down following the arrivals of Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro, Estevao, Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr – with only Bashir Humphreys, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Marcus Bettinelli sold so far for minimal fees.
Therefore, finding a buyer for Chilwell – for a respectable fee – could end up proving to be imperative before the transfer deadline, if Chelsea still haven’t evened out their spending by that stage of the summer.