In the buildup to our game against Wolves this afternoon, manager Enzo Maresca has just announced that midfielder Romeo Lavia has a mild injury.
That should be no problem for a squad this deep, and should mean one of the midfielder’s lower down the depth chart stepping up. Carney Chukwuemeka has been starved of minutes since the very start of preseason – would he get a place on the bench today with Lavia out?
No. In fact Chukwuemeka remains nowhere to be seen. Fabrizio Romano has noticed this and uses it as the peg to fire up the transfer rumour machine once again, with the window closing next week.
The Italian insider claims that CC has been left out because he’s closing in on a departure from Chelsea. “Time to assess options,” Romano wrote. “His exit is a concrete possibility.”
What’s not clear is whether it’s going to be a loan or a permanent departure. A loan creates the potential for him to increase his value, but those upstairs may prefer to just have him off the books entirely.
🚨🔵 Apart from Lavia’s hamstring problem, Carney Chukwuemeka also not part of Chelsea squad today as he could leave the club next week.
Several clubs approached #CFC for Carney and now time to assess options.
His exit is concrete possibility; Sterling and Chilwell out as well. pic.twitter.com/YVVYO9Anbd
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 25, 2024
Brutal career setback still hurting Chukwuemeka
This week saw Chelsea really start to make progress on a lot of the necessary sales and loans to trim this squad down to a normal size. Moving Carney on will be an important part of that, and the fact that “several clubs” have already “approached” us bodes well for the ease of moving Carney on.
It’s a real shame as he’s been quality whenever he’s played in Blue. That injury a year ago cost him desperately and has been a huge career setback, sadly. We bought him as as young talent with a bright future, now we seem to be selling him before he’s had a chance to show us what he can really do.
