Chelsea will reportedly reject any loan offers for one among their stars as Enzo Maresca desires to sell the £23million player permanently this summer.
The Blues have numerous players they should offload this transfer window, especially after spending £210m on seven signings to date.
Furthermore, after being heavily fined by UEFA for breaching financial rules, it’s reported that the club need to lift no less than £60m with a view to register their recent signings for next season’s Champions League.
They’re well-placed to achieve this with Noni Madueke seemingly on his approach to Arsenal while Borussia Dortmund wish to re-sign Carney Chukwuemeka after his loan spell ended.
To that end, as reported by Fabrizio Romano, the club have also decided they may not accept any loan offers for Lesley Ugochukwu, whose time at Stamford Bridge is all but over.
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Ugochukwu signed a seven-year contract when he joined from Rennes in 2023 in a transfer price just over £23m.
Mauricio Pochettino opted to slowly integrate the young defensive midfielder into his first-team, giving him just 15 appearances and only six starts in his debut season.
But with Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia ahead within the pecking order, Maresca loaned the 21-year-old out to Southampton last campaign where he suffered relegation.
While the Saints narrowly avoided becoming the worst team in Premier League history, Ugochukwu put in decent performances and is now attracting interest from clubs around Europe, including Valencia.
Several Premier League sides are keen too, but Chelsea will only accept a everlasting transfer, though the France U21 star’s price tag isn’t known.
BBC Sport do report nevertheless that if a suitable bid isn’t made they may consider a loan to a Premier League rival and if that doesn’t materialise by the top of the summer, a loan abroad can be sanctioned.
Recently, Maresca explicitly told the Chelsea squad that they were free to depart the club in the event that they weren’t content, saying: ‘My message to the players and to the club is that I would like just players which might be completely happy to be with us.
‘Those that will not be completely happy, they’re free to go.’
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