Chelsea have 27 players with a first-team number. Anyone they sell or loan in the final week of the outgoing transfer window will come from the reserve pool, not the regulars.
Chelsea’s remaining moves of the summer transfer window will have the feel of administrative house-cleaning rather than headline-making football business. The Blues have serial loanees still awaiting their next loan, the door to the first-team long shut (if it was ever actually open to them). Michael Hector and Tomas Kalas will shuffle off to their next temporary home. Charly Musonda may get a ticket out of the development squad to play first-team football somewhere else, if he can check his attitude for more than a hot minute. And Lucas Piazon will likely chalk this season up as another tease as he heads out as the clock expires.
Not leaving Chelsea this month: Marcos Alonso and Gary Cahill. Not for £30 million or £60 million to Madrid (Alonso), and not for a stint in Turkey (Cahill).
The rumours around Marcos Alonso are the latest proof that the only people who do not rate him highly are a certain, sadly vocal segment of Chelsea’s fan base. Our sibling site, Pain in the Arsenal, has said more positive things about Alonso in the last five days than some Chelsea outlets.
Even if we assume the worst about Marcos Alonso (that is to say, too slow muh PACE hurr durr pace pace derp positioning hurr durr), Chelsea have no one to replace him. Emerson Palmieri cannot even beat Davide Zappacosta to the bench, let alone the pitch. Whatever speed Palmieri could have brought to the Blues on Saturday, he could hardly have bettered Marcos Alonso in neutralizing Hector Bellerin. Palmieri would also not have scored the winning goal, considering he has scored as many goals in his career – total – as Marcos Alonso scored just off of open play last season.
The Gary Cahill rumours at least have a weak foundation. Since returning from the World Cup, Cahill has been seen about as often as Emerson. Maurizio Sarri seems unfortunately committed to his pairing of David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger, and Andreas Christensen has been his centre-back on the bench.
But even if Sarri only sees Cahill as a distant depth player, he still needs him in that role. Cahill is homegrown in the Premier League and association trained for the Europa League. The Blues need him to make up numbers in case they need him on the pitch.
Sooner or later (hopefully sooner, but at this point hopefully simply someday) Sarri will realize the peril of relying on David Luiz. This should put Cahill into Christensen’s spot on the bench, which should also mean a role in the cups and Europa League. Ethan Ampadu is in that mix as well. But if Sarri is reluctant to select Christensen he will need to be in a dire position before he takes Ampadu for a regular Premier League billet.
Cahill also has the advantages of age and experience – both of which Sarri values highly – and a record of fighting his way back from the fringes to the starting XI. As we often point out, calling time on his career is a good way to look foolish over and over again.
Chelsea’s squad has room to increase by one player before the month ends. They have 24 players in the Premier League squad, with 16 non-homegrown. The only player with an outside chance of making that leap is Lucas Piazon. He had a decent preseason and Maurizio Sarri supposedly saw something he liked in him. However, Sarri would need to have plans for Piazon other than his usual position as a winger, given Chelsea’s surplus of options. Sarri may also decide simply to leave that spot vacant, given his apparent satisfaction with the group and his practice of minimal rotation.
The squad will not get any smaller, though. And it certainly will not get smaller through a late loan or transfer for their ex-Bolton men, Marcos Alonso or Gary Cahill. Come January, the situation may change for Cahill. Knowing this club and knowing him, a transfer and a starting XI spot are almost equally foreseeable.