Chelsea will demand a massive fee for one of their outcasts after Enzo Maresca told Carney Chukwuemeka to “come knock on my door” and ask to join West Ham.
Since signing for £20m in summer 2022, Chukwuemeka has made 32 appearances but started just four times.
The England youth international has not made a single Premier League matchday squad this season and played barely over 100 minutes in the Europa Conference League and Carabao Cup.
Maresca confirmed last week that he expects some players to force the issue over their futures ahead of the January transfer window, with Chukwuemeka among them,
“There are players who unfortunately didn’t play a lot with us in all the competitions, like Chilwell, like Carney, and probably they are the first who want to leave because they work every day,” the Chelsea coach said.
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“They train every day, because they want to play games.
“And if they don’t play games, probably they are thinking to leave. But then we will see. With each player, it’s a different situation.
“We’re going to see if some of them come knock on my door to say they want to leave, but it depends. We try to find a solution.”
Among those could obviously be a sale but the belief is that Chelsea would demand £40m for a reserve player most have forgotten the existence of.
That has ‘deterred’ some suitors, with West Ham mentioned and Strasbourg hilariously ‘considered favourable’ by the Stamford Bridge hierarchy.
The French club, battling relegation in Ligue Un, ‘play a similar style and system to Maresca under their coach Liam Rosenior’. And the best of luck to Chelsea in getting a £40m sale of a £20m asset to their sister club through a Fair Market Value assessment.
Maresca might be more focused on matters of form after Chelsea followed up their draw at Everton by losing at home to Fulham; three of a possible ten substitutes were used in those matches so Chukwuemeka shouldn’t be too frustrated about not making the bench.
“I think it’s just a game that unfortunately we lost,” he said. “Now it is just a matter of recovering energy and go again in three days.
“I said many times not because we win or lose a game that we are ready or not ready. It is the feeling we have inside. The reality for us. This is the reason why the best thing we can do is just focus on game by game and see the things we need to improve.”
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