Chelsea have triple £142m Enzo Maresca transfer demand before Jamie Gittens deal completed

By the time the summer window shut last year, Chelsea had six players who could quite easily play on the left wing. Going off the number who would feature there or have done in the past, it was actually as many as eight options for Enzo Maresca.

Primarily, there were only three players the Chelsea coach really considered for the position. Deadline day signing Jadon Sancho, Mykhailo Mudryk, and Pedro Neto.

Tyrique George would be integrated and slowly exposed to senior football throughout, but was not deemed ready for elite-level matches at the start. Joao Felix was occasionally shunted out there when he needed some minutes, whilst Christopher Nkunku was favoured centrally as a replacement for Nicolas Jackson.

Noni Madueke ended the season playing on the left with Sancho and Nkunku out of form, Felix on loan, and Mudryk suspended. Neto had been asked with playing up front or, increasingly as first choice on the right.

That Chelsea were happy to let Nkunku join Felix in leaving Stamford Bridge in January says it all. There were too many players for not enough meaningful games. The Conference League kept people going – and helped play Sancho, Neto, and Madueke into form at times – but was not ample competitive action to satisfy Felix or Nkunku.

Of these players, Chelsea will enter next month with all but one of them on the books. Unless there is some dramatic transfer activity, only Jadon Sancho will not be at the club.

He is set to return to Manchester United after failing to agree a permanent contract at Chelsea despite both parties being happy to extend his stay. Sancho, though, would not be a star player at SW6 as he was when United signed him, so a considerable salary reduction was required. The terms would not work out.

Just because these players are on the books does not mean they are in Maresca’s plans, however. Mudryk, for example, is banned from playing or even training after failing a doping check in November. He has now been charged by the FA and faces an unclear future.

He has not been taken to America for the Club World Cup and neither has Felix. Raheem Sterling is a firm part of the bomb squad back in England now seeking to find a new home somewhere else.

All of a sudden, Maresca’s nine left-winger options from September 2024 is down to three with Nkunku expected to leave this window and George still only 19. Neto is primarily a right-winger, so the only natural player here is actually George. You can argue that there are four, but Madueke really does look awkward there at the moment and Jackson hasn’t been stationed outside of his central role under Maresca at all yet.

Maybe it will happen now Liam Delap has arrived, but that remains to be seen. Interestingly, though, it was Madueke who continued his stint on the left against Los Angeles FC (LAFC) on Monday in the Club World Cup opener. Maresca replaced him with George, not Nkunku. Cole Palmer was taken off for the Frenchman instead, which tell its own story.

Nkunku has not been and never was a proper winger. The overload of players in between, with Felix also not occupying a defined role in the squad, caused Maresca serious issues.

The fat of his attacking players has now been trimmed so much that Chelsea may well need to buy two left-wingers just to improve. Jamie Gittens is the priority target; Malick Fofana, Alejandro Garnacho, Joao Pedro, and Mohammed Kudus are all also on a wide-ranging shortlist.

Chelsea’s window so far has certainly been focused on bringing in new players for Maresca ahead of the Club World Cup but before long that will have to shift. Chelsea cannot afford to sign two new wingers if they face the prospect of having Felix and Nkunku, among others, still permanently contracted.

Sterling, Felix, and Nkunku must all leave to avoid the late-window carnage of last summer that saw Sancho come in, Sterling go out, and plenty of others remain in limbo. Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka, for example, did very little for six months before heading out on loan in January.

Chelsea must not make the same mistake again; it can be detrimental to value and squad management. Maresca insisted last year that his team was not 40 players or more, but the noise and uncertainty around a group of senior professionals in purgatory is far from helpful.

As Chelsea look to improve their squad for the new season, sight should not be lost that there is plenty to ship out first and foremost as well. Sterling, Nkunku, and Felix cost a combined £142million and will all be losing value the longer things go on.

Nkunku can at least still play matches as he remained with the squad for the second half of the season, but his performance levels and intensity have been a long way off his best. All roads lead to an exit, and if Chelsea are to really revamp their forward line in the strongest possible way, then it is better to happen sooner rather than later.