It never appears to be quiet at Chelsea during any transfer window, and another player is expected to be leaving Stamford Bridge in the next month.
The Blues have sold high-profile footballers such as Noni Madueke and Joao Felix already this summer. In fact, Chelsea have raised nearly £160m from player sales in this transfer window to help balance the books.
It does feel like Enzo Maresca found a settled squad towards the end of last season, but there are a lot of individuals still on the books that need to be shifted on.
Chelsea's sporting directors and co-owner celebrating on the pitch after beating Real Betis in the Conference League final.
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Chelsea expect to sell Lesley Ugochukwu
According to journalist Matt Law, Chelsea do expect to sell Lesley Ugochukwu, 21, before the summer transfer window closes on 1 September.
During a discussion about Ugochukwu on The London Is Blue Podcast, Law said: “I don’t have a club for you. I’m told there is an expectation that he will leave permanently. They expect to sell him rather than loan him at this stage… They think a sale is going to happen on Lesley.”
Ugochukwu, who arrived at Stamford Bridge from Rennes in August 2023, looks set to be sold after just two years.
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The defensive midfielder played a bit-part role for the Blues during his first year. Last season, he spent the year on loan with Southampton, suffering relegation from the Premier League in emphatic fashion.
Reports claim that Ugochukwu is well-liked at Chelsea, and they expect there to be plenty of transfer interest in him this summer. In fairness, it’s been pretty quiet so far in the transfer rumour mill when it comes to his future, but perhaps things are bubbling away behind the scenes.
Lesley Ugochukwu warming up before Southampton against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
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Lesley Ugochukwu would be a great signing for Premier League clubs
The reality is that Ugochukwu is pretty unfortunate that Chelsea are stacked with top-class talents in the centre of the park. We don’t blame the Blues for looking to shift him on when they already own midfielders such as Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos and Romeo Lavia.
However, we’re pretty confident that Ugochukwu has the physical and technical quality to shine in the Premier League, something he did in glimpses for a poor Southampton team last term.
It was only a year ago that Chelsea internally compared Ugochukwu to Aurelien Tchouameni, the Real Madrid midfield star.
Aged 21, he’s got so much time to develop and improve if he finds the right buyer in this summer transfer window.