Chelsea defenders Trevoh Chalobah and Marc Cucurella have NOT been told that they have played their last game for the club, according to journalist Fabrizio Romano.
There have been suggestions that the pair are deemed surplus to requirements but, while the two players do expect to be put on the market in January, Romano says that neither has been frozen out:
“From what I’m hearing, although it’s true that Chelsea accepted that proposal and wanted Chalobah to go to Forest, there is no formal communication from the club that Chalobah is not going to play for them again.”
“Sources on the player side feel that the player expects to leave Chelsea in January – the feeling is that something will happen for them to part ways. Chalobah still wants to leave if there’s good opportunity like Bayern. But, to reiterate, there is no guarantee that Chalobah will not play for Chelsea.”
“There was also something similar being reported about Marc Cucurella, but Chelsea deny players being frozen out. Again, the feeling is that both Chalobah and Cucurella are set to look for new clubs in January if they can’t play in the next months.”
Both Chalobah and Cucurella had opportunities to leave Chelsea in the summer
As Romano mentions, it is believed that Chalobah was a target for Bayern Munich and the player was keen on joining the Bundesliga champions, where he would link up with his former manager Thomas Tuchel.
However, with Germany’s transfer window shutting six hours before England’s, the details of the deal could not be worked out before the deadline was reached. Nottingham Forest then made a last-minute £25m bid for the defender, which was accepted by Chelsea, but the player wasn’t interested in moving to the City Ground.
Cucurella’s situation was slightly different. Manchester United were keen on loaning the Spanish international but there were said to be issues regarding the size of the loan fee and the presence of a break clause that would allow United to send the player back in January.
