Game over for seven Chelsea stars as Pochettino brutally tells £160m worth of talent to pack their bags (original) (raw)

Chelsea are set to swing the axe on seven players as Mauricio Pochettino aims to turn the club into serious title contenders, TEAMtalk can exclusively reveal.

Chelsea suffered a seventh Premier League defeat in 16 games on Sunday as Everton put them to the sword at Goodison Park.

Defeat plunged the Blues into 12th in the table – behind west London rivals Fulham and Brentford – and left manager Pochettino under severe scrutiny from the fans.

The Argentine claimed after the game that Chelsea must buy new players when the transfer window reopens in January, despite the club already spending in excess of £1billion since Todd Boehly completed his takeover last year.

Despite the mounting pressure on Pochettino, the Chelsea boss is backed by the owners who are ready to go through difficult times and fulfil their project with the former Tottenham manager at the helm.

This will require yet more surgery on a squad that has been chopped and changed more than any other in the Premier League in recent times, and January will see the club remove players they consider not good enough.

Several players at risk as Pochettino targets Chelsea rebuild

Conversations have been ongoing between the directors and Pochettino over who is seen a dispensable and not at the required level to stay for the foreseeable future, with a list of names at risk of losing their status as Chelsea players revealed.

Noni Madueke, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja, Marc Cucurella, Axel Disasi, Ian Maatsen and Malo Gusto are among those who are considered as available options to be sold and replaced with better quality over the next two transfer windows.

Madueke, Cucurella, Disasi and Gusto have been signed at considerable expense over the past two seasons with Madueke garnering a £29million fee for PSV, Cucurella earning Brighton up to £63million, Gusto coming in from Lyon for over £30million and Disasi costing £39million from Monaco in summer.

Incomings are also scheduled, and the priority is a striker. Despite the criticism of Nicolas Jackson, the club hope to develop him and help him become a top player at the club.

Like the struggling Mykhailo Mudryk, signed from Shakhtar Donetsk for a fee potentially rising to £89million in January, there is belief in Jackson’s ability to realise his full potential at Chelsea.

Victor Osimhen is the top target for the centre-forward position, but a deal in January is looking more difficult with every passing day and summer is when Napoli hope to do business as there will be multiple clubs in the bidding.

Pochettino is applying pressure to his bosses to move in the coming weeks and add some top-class talent into his ranks to help salvage the season and climb up the Premier League table.

There are hopes in the club for European qualification but that looks very difficult for the Blues right now.

Chelsea may once again have to pay out vast sums in the upcoming weeks to add the required quality for a stronger second half to their campaign.

January is not an easy time to do business and it could be a month of battling negotiations once again for the club.

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