5 Players Heading for the Exit

Chelsea summer sales: It is no longer a luxury or a passing chat over a pint. The clearout at Stamford Bridge has become an absolute necessity. Having inherited a bloated, deeply erratic squad that somehow missed out on European football entirely during a disastrous 2025/26 campaign, Xabi Alonso finds himself holding the broom. The exit door is swinging off its hinges.

Marc Cucurella has already packed his bags for Real Madrid in a deal worth pushing £52 million. Alejandro Garnacho has been shipped off to Aston Villa on loan with a mandatory buy clause attached. Yet, according to reports across SI, FootballTransfers, and The Pride of London, five more senior figures are sitting on the precipice.

The frontmen out of runway

Nicolas Jackson’s time in West London is dead in the water. Offloaded to Bayern Munich on loan last season, the Senegalese forward spent months staring at the back of Harry Kane’s head and failed to make any real case to displace him. Bayern won’t trigger their option to buy. Alonso has zero interest in integrating him now that he is back at Cobham. Chelsea want a decent fee, mind you. 14 goal involvements in Germany isn’t nothing, but a permanent departure is the only realistic resolution.

Then you have Liam Delap. Arriving from Ipswich Town last summer for £30 million, he simply hasn’t convinced a single soul that he belongs in the starting eleven. João Pedro has firmly pushed him down the pecking order. Newcastle and Everton are sniffing around, offering the young striker a lifeline to rescue his development before he gets completely lost in the machinery.

Defending the bottom line

Filip Jörgensen isn’t hiding his frustration anymore. The 24-year-old Danish stopper, brought in from Villarreal for £20.7 million in 2024, spent the vast majority of the year playing second fiddle to Robert Sánchez. He wants out. He has handed in a formal request, and Chelsea won’t block the exit door for a backup keeper who wants first-team football.

Axel Disasi finds himself in a similar boat. Returning from a loan spell with West Ham, the French central defender came back to find his spot completely wiped out. There is no route into Alonso’s matchday squad. Newcastle are monitoring his situation closely after his £38.6 million arrival from Monaco in 2023, and when Premier League rivals show this much interest, the player usually moves on pretty quickly.

Enzo Fernández remains the elephant in the room. The mess started during the March international break when he publicly fluttered his eyelashes at Real Madrid, a stunt that earned him a two-match club suspension. Now, the Argentine finds himself stranded. Alonso wants to keep the talent, but Fernández wants out. Shifting a £103.4 million signing from January 2023 is a financial nightmare, but keeping an unhappy player around the dressing room is worse.

Missing out on European cash has left a massive hole in the books. Alonso needs money to rebuild this squad in his own image, and getting these five off the wage bill provides the quickest route to actual funds.

Read: Liverpool and Man City preparing for transfer battle to sign £54m Chelsea star

Years of frantic, scattergun recruitment without a single thread of footballing logic have left Alonso cleaning up someone else’s mess. Flogging Fernández will trigger a massive PR storm among the fanbase, but cutting a disgruntled player loose is usually the smartest option. Getting the right bodies out of the door matters far more than just shifting numbers.