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Influential Chelsea player left out of programme as shocking escalation to sale continue

By SuperFrank -

UPDATE: Well! What a fuss about nothing. A more updated version of the programme does have Chilwell in there, although Broja, Lukaku and Gallagher are still left out. It must have been a mistake – what a relief!

Chelsea’s programme for the first game of the season is out, and there are already fans picking through it for clues about the club’s fans this summer.

The first thing to notice is that a few players have been left off the squad list on the back – perhaps no surprise given how many players need to be squeezed in. Among them are Armando Broja, Romelu Lukaku and Conor Gallagher, all of whom are in different stages of their departures from the club.

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But also not listed was Ben Chilwell. Until now there’s been plenty of suggestion that the Blues would sell him if an offer came in, but he had travelled and toured with the team as usual, and hadn’t been training with the “bomb squad” like Lukaku and Gallagher.

Enzo Maresca’s comments about the left back certainly made it obvious that Chilwell isn’t in his plans – but we didn’t think it would escalate to this level so fast.

An unnecessary escalation

Now Gallagher, Broja and Lukaku we can understand. It’s been very clear for months (in some cases years) that they’re on the way out, and in fact we never would have expected them to be included here. All 3 will hope to be gone within the next few days, let alone before the closing of the transfer window.

But Chilwell? He’s quite clearly not in Maresca’s first team plans – we barely saw him in preseason. But is there really any need to include him in the big freeze out? Wouldn’t it be better to keep him in and keep him onside, at least until a real opportunity to sell him comes up? Is there really any need to force him out so aggressively? Aren’t they concerned about the atmosphere this is going to create in the dressing room?

We guess not…

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