Chelsea have one week to complete £320m transfers and Enzo Maresca is desperate

A year is a long time. It is enough time to forget how pressed Chelsea were to conclude some strange transfer activity at the end of June 2024.

The signing of Omari Kellyman from Aston Villa for £19million – which was offset by the sale of Ian Maatsen going the other way for £37.5million – is evidence of that. Whilst undoubtedly talented, Kellyman was effectively a youth pawn being moved to help two teams in their bid to comply with Premier League financial rules.

Villa carried out a similar deal with Everton. Newcastle United were also desperate to improve their numbers in the wake of points deductions and serious profitability and sustainability rule (PSR) threats.

A brief deal of Alexander Isak and Nicolas Jackson going their separate ways was actually on the table, such was the mental and mathematical gymnastics needed. Clubs were simultaneously waiting for July 1 and the 2024/25 account year to start, but also incredibly worried about not having sold enough to make up for losses.

Chelsea, who were still trying to balance the summer 2023 signings of Moises Caicedo (£115million) and Romeo Lavia (£58million) most notably, and most expensively, needed to play the game. They had survived via a controversial trick of selling hotel buildings to themselves in order to boost the figures and create a tiny margin.

This is why they were so keen to move on Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah. Chelsea would go on to exile them both from pre-season preparations under Maresca.

They missed out on the June 30 bonus but continued on with the ambition of banking over £60million for the pair of them. In the end, Chelsea would make a net loss on Gallagher after buying Joao Felix as the makeweight going the other way once things fell through with Samu Aghehowa (previously Omorodion).

Chalobah had to wait. He was loaned out to Crystal Palace, eventually, before returning in January in an embarrassing U-turn for the club following defensive injuries. An exit for him has not been ruled out this summer but for the first time in a while, Chelsea are not actively pushing for it.

All of this inside the first few weeks of the window, plus a new manager in Enzo Maresca arriving as people adapted to the surprise of Mauricio Pochettino’s departure, meant it was extremely noisy and chaotic at Chelsea, again. 12 months on and there is still plenty of drama and uncertainty but not in the same way.

Chelsea’s June deadline in 2025 came before the window was even open for business at all last year. They had to sign players before June 10 to register them for the Club World Cup. Only one deal got done in Liam Delap but Mike Maignan and Jamie Gittens became major talking points.

Sales, despite the large bomb squad not involved at the Club World Cup, have not been a priority. Chelsea have room to manoeuvre with PSRs.

Their sale of the women’s team – or, strategic ‘repositioning’, as it is described – has massively improved the financial outlook. Although that helped the 2023/24 accounts, PSRs look at things over a rolling three-year period.

It is partially for this reason that Chelsea have not needed to be in a rush to move on from their host of unwanted players. They are not under the same PSR pressure this time round and also know that with Champions League football returning, Conference League winnings (though minimal), and Club World Cup prize money, they are well set for the coming year as well.

That does not mean that selling will not become a priority further down the line. Chelsea’s current focus is on Gittens and then possible defensive reinforcement. Another attacking player might also follow with Hugo Ekitike, Alejandro Garnacho, and Mohammed Kudus among those of interest.

But they would simply be added to a lengthy squad list, too much of which is made up of those without a future at Stamford Bridge. Included are Raheem Sterling, Carney Chukwuemeka, Armando Broja, and Joao Felix.

Christopher Nkunku falls into the same category but is at least playing a role with Maresca out in America for now. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall faces an uncertain few months with West Ham interested in him.

Ben Chilwell is also looking for a new club, as is Djordje Petrovic. Axel Disasi is up for sale, Lesley Ugochukwu is in no man’s land between not part of the first team but maybe still with enough quality to be useful for Maresca. Renato Veiga is another who will surely be considering his options.

Kepa Arrizabalaga is already on the verge of joining Arsenal for £5million,football.london understands. That will clear off a player on large wages but plenty remain.

Chelsea spent a combined £320million on this set of players but will get barely a fraction of that back. Regardless, it is still vital that they seek to move on from as many as possible, and permanently, as quickly as possible.

Last summer was full of questions being aimed at an increasingly irritated Maresca about how he would manage a squad of more than 30 players. Depending on how far into the academy you went or which fringe players were included, more than 44 names could be picked out as being in the senior Chelsea camp.

The reality, Maresca insisted, was that he only had 25 or so under genuine consideration. Chelsea will be keen to keep things in tow again this year. Without the PSR demands, next week’s deadline and cut off on June 30 will not be a big story for Chelsea this year.

However, it should not detract from the fact that there is so much outgoing business to carry out.