Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has said the club are looking to make new signings before the end of the transfer window despite completing their tenth summer signing earlier this week.
Pedro Neto joined Chelsea in a £54m ($69.6m) deal from Wolves on Monday, following Tosin Adarabioyo, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Filip Jörgensen, Omari Kellyman, Aaron Anselmino, Caleb Wiley, Renato Veiga and Marc Guiu into west London, while Estêvão Willian is set to join the club in 2025.
That activity has left Chelsea with a bloated 43-man squad as they look to offload several unwanted members, including Conor Gallagher, whose proposed £34m move to Atletico Madrid is on hold while the LaLiga club raise funds to complete the deal.
Chelsea are in talks with Atletico over the possible acquisition of Joao Felix, while Napoli are open to signing Victor Osimhen in a player-plus-money swap for Romelu Lukaku.
Asked about the links with Felix and Osimhen, Maresca said on Friday: “The only thing I can say is that I always have to say the same thing. They are not our players, so it is not correct, I think, to talk about a Napoli player or – who is the other? – an Atletico Madrid player.
“At this point, the club knows exactly what I think in terms of what we need if we do something and hopefully before the transfer window ends we can bring in some players.”
Gallagher and Trevor Chalobah are among several players training away from the first team ahead of Chelsea's season-opening game against champions Manchester City on Sunday.
Gallagher will be unavailable against City, while Ben Chilwell, Armando Broja and Raheem Sterling are among the players who could depart before the window closes.
“We've been in the United States for 20 days with 28, 29 players, so it's been pretty good in terms of team management,” Maresca said. “Now we have the guys who are not involved in our team, they're training separately. At the moment, it's not difficult, also because if I start to think that I have 43 players, it's probably not a good thing.
“I've just finished the session now and I'm already thinking about tomorrow's session. It's the only thing I like to do, I like to control. If you think about 43 players,” said the coach. [has] There is no time, I think it is not worth it.
“He [sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart] “There are people who are trying to find solutions for these types of players. I am not the one in charge of finding solutions for these players, otherwise they would have to pay me double.”
Maresca left Leicester City after winning the Championship title last season to succeed Mauricio Pochettino at Stamford Bridge and revealed he had recently spoken to two fellow Italians, Claudio Ranieri and Carlo Ancelotti, who previously managed Chelsea.
“I spoke to Claudio Ranieri and the reason was also because I spoke to him before starting the season with Leicester and we won,” Maresca said.
“So when I signed for Chelsea I called him straight away to see if it would be the same. Then I spoke to Carlo Ancelotti when we played Madrid.” [in preseason] For a while, they were both talking about the club. [as] “Fantastic, about your experience here, fantastic.”
