Chelsea: Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic should be sold as part of clear out

Chelsea needs a clear out now after a tremendously successful transfer window that isn’t over yet with Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic still to go.

Chelsea has engineered a brilliant transfer window with numerous major signings already achieved and likely two or more to follow. But, the clearout of players surplus to requirements must now begin to accumulate funds for additional transfers. At the top of the list are two midfielders, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic. These players are surplus to requirements at the club and additions from other clubs and/or from the academy will take up the slack.

Both Jorginho and Kovacic are good players in their own right. Both are competent and reliable in midfield but neither provide any discernible great attribute that makes them intrinsic to the new Chelsea that is being constructed by manager Frank Lampard. They are just not good enough for the new Blues.

Jorginho is known as a regista, a central midfielder who can help control possession in the midfield. But, he is not up to snuff in advancing the ball up the pitch to help create in the attack, an attribute that the new Chelsea will require. The player fits a system as was instituted by Mauricio Sarri at Napoli and then the Blues, but Jorginho just doesn’t have the attributes that fit the new attacking style that Chelsea will employ going forward. He’s clearly surplus to requirements at the Blues and should command a reasonably good fee in transfer, especially if the aforementioned Mauricio Sarri is hired by another club, as he will almost certainly be if he is amenable to a new position at this time. Jorginho goes.

In addition, Mateo Kovacic, his designation as Chelsea’s “Player of the Year” notwithstanding, should also be a candidate for sale. Kovacic is a good, decent player, but again, he is not of the quality or ability to fit the new Blues attacking style. He just doesn’t fit. Kovacic is good in possession but has little other ability as a midfielder to help advance an attack that Chelsea is constructing to challenge in world football. He’s not an attacker himself and he’s just a marginal defensive midfielder, as well. His lack of any defining, magnificent skill should leave him out of the Chelsea revolution. He should also be sold.

At best, Jorginho and Kovacic are squad players for the new Chelsea and they would certainly be adequate in that role. But, at this stage of their careers, they will not likely be amenable to that role going forward. That is why both should be sold in this window. This will help the Blues to aggregate funds for the additional transfers that the club now must still make.

The return for the two players would almost certainly be a tidy sum to help the team to secure the services of perhaps Declan Rice or a top flight goalkeeper. Chelsea should sign Rice. He is a much better player than either Jorginho or Kovacic. And he is a far more versatile player, as well. Rice can play both as a central defensive midfielder and as a central defender, at which manager Frank Lampard reportedly feels he can excel. At either position, he is a star in the making while the other two midfielders are just squad players at this point for Chelsea.

Jorginho and Kovacic can easily be replaced by Declan Rice and Ethan Ampadu, both of whom are terrific young players who can rise and grow with the new revolutionary Chelsea team. In addition, the sale of the two midfielders, who are surplus to team requirements now, would help augment Chelsea’s transfer funds to finance the additional transfer activity that will help complete the team. The verdict is clear, Jorginho and Kovacic should both be sold in this window.