There was widespread disgust among Chelsea fans yesterday at the news that Trevoh Chalobah had been left out of the travelling squad for the USA Tour.
The academy produced defender is a fan favourite and was our best central defender last season after returning from injury. The club are determined to sell him however, and are trying to force him out by ostracising him in this sort of way in order to force him to accept a move elsewhere.
This is only necessary because he’s got such a long time left on his current contract – a contract the current ownership agreed with him as recently as the end of 2022.
Ben Jacobs, who can be relied upon to give you the line that the club are putting out, gives the following spin to the story – that it was just a practical decision to leave the defender out of the travelling group. It was a “difficult decision” to leave him out and “not one taken lightly”. Manager Enzo Maresca wanted to be “strict on numbers” on the tour.
This is nonsense of course – no matter how strict you are on numbers, you wouldn’t leave out your best defender from last season without an ulterior motive.
https://twitte.com/JacobsBen/status/1815433848744013968
Chalobah’s position over move
This is a more extreme situation than last summer, where Chalobah was also up for sale but turned down offers because he wanted to play for Chelsea, or at least for a club in Europe. Clearly every attempt is now being made to force him out – but the ball is still in his court.
Today Nick Purewal has written that the 25 year old’s position remains the same – he would “prefer to stay at Chelsea and force his way back into the reckoning,” despite being treated this way. If he does leave, he would “seek European football.” The Blues want more than £25m for Chalobah.
