When Xabi Alonso welcomes his Chelsea players back to pre-season training, the new Blues manager will have an enormous squad to choose from. Marc Cucurella has gone, but one is now returning.
Cucurella’s sale to Real Madrid is likely to be the first of a long list of players that are expected to leave Chelsea in the coming weeks. Chelsea and Real Madrid agreed a £52m deal for the Spain international.
Chelsea have got it ALL WRONG with Kendry Paez 👇
Before Marcelo Gallardo was sacked…
Plenty are set to follow Cucurella, with Filip Jorgensen handing in a transfer request and Axel Disasi set to leave the club in the coming weeks. Without Europe, Chelsea will have to trim the size of their squad.
When Alonso gets his World Cup players and returning loanees back, there could be as many as 40 players in first-team training. Now, that number is set to increase by one, with Kendry Paez returning.
River Plate make unsurprising Kendry Paez decision
It has been a difficult 12 months for Kendry Paez. Sent on loan to Strasbourg under Liam Rosenior during the first half of 2025-26, he was recalled before being sent to River Plate on loan until June 2027.
But a year prior to his loan ending, Hernan Castillo reports on River Plate site Pasion Monumental that River have cancelled Paez’s loan early. The Chelsea youngster has struggled since moving to Argentina.
Kendry Paez of River Plate looks on during a Torneo Apertura
Photo by Manuel Cortina/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
There have been glimpses, but niggling injuries have hampered Paez’s progress. He has failed to make the grade, and when River return to action after the World Cup, £17m Chelsea star Paez will have left.
Indeed, River have decided not to pursue their loan with Paez and hope he turns good. Instead, they have decided to cut his loan spell short, and Paez will now return to Chelsea and Alonso’s pre-season training.
Some reports even emerged during his time in Argentina that his attitude was not good enough. Eduardo Coudet came in as the club’s new manager and was expected to give Paez a chance, but now, he’s gone.
A new loan is required for Kendry Paez this summer
It is three years since Chelsea spent £17m to sign Paez from Independiente Del Valle, the club in which most Ecuadorian players come through; Willian Pacho, Piero Hincapie and Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo.
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But he has failed to prove that transfer fee, and three years later, the 19-year-old is looking like a very expensive flop. Paez needs a really good loan to get his career back on track in the next few months.
Perhaps, keeping Paez in England for the 2026-27 makes more sense. A loan to a Championship club that play attacking football would give Paez the platform, and get him better-suited to Chelsea in the future.
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