Who will exit Chelsea? How Blues could cut 41-man squad

What the report says

BBC Sport Football reports that Chelsea are once again trying to trim an unusually large senior squad, with 41 players on the books and 25 days left in the transfer window. The club’s new manager, Xabi Alonso, is said to want a much smaller group for the season ahead, especially with Chelsea not playing in Europe this campaign. BBC Sport notes that reducing the squad to a more manageable size could require a significant number of departures by early September.

The article says several players are already available for sale or loan, including Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, Marc Guiu, David Datro Fofana and Caleb Wiley, while Trevoh Chalobah is close to joining Como and Filip Jorgensen is set for a loan move to Strasbourg. BBC Sport also highlights uncertainty around players such as Mykhailo Mudryk, who has returned to training after a long absence, and others whose futures depend on fitness, squad balance or transfer interest.

The report places Chelsea’s situation in a wider context of long-running squad stockpiling and heavy player trading under the club’s current ownership. It says the club are used to moving players on, but squad-management rules and FIFA’s ban on so-called “bomb squads” make the task more complicated. With a projected 25-man core squad, Chelsea are expected to keep reshaping the group while weighing sales, loans and possible signings before the deadline.