£80m could become £130m and Chelsea can use it on a proper striker if major January sale goes through | OneFootball

Pat Nevin knows Chelsea better than most – he has been here as a player and in all manner of capacities as an ambassador and a pundit.

He doesn’t seem to be aligned with the new ownership, which gives him in some ways a more interesting outside view on things under Clearlake-Boehly.

His thoughts on this transfer window (and the one to come in the summer) are the same as ours: Chelsea won’t be doing anything until the sales still left to do on the old squad are done.

As he points out, the club could raise serious money just from shedding a few squad players. He puts the figure at £80m, but of course it could be a lot higher depending on how major the sales are:

“Chelsea could make about £80m back and that would give them a chance of signing a big name player and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s a striker,” Nevin wrote quotes picked up by the Metro.

“Christopher Nkunku could well be one of the players to leave and not because he isn’t good enough, just because that’s the way Chelsea do business.”

Nkunku sale would make sense for player and for Chelsea’s squad planning

Christopher Nkunku celebrates hat-trick against Barrow. (Photo by Zac Goodwin/PA) (PA Wire)

The likes of Cesare Casadei and Carney Chukwuemeka look likely to raise about £20m each if sold. But Nkunku is a price bracket above. He’d raise at least £50m, and then you’d have serious money to play with in the market.

It also makes sense in terms of squad planning too. Nkunku currently can’t get minutes in our most busy area of the pitch. Sell him and use the money to buy a really solid backup for Nicolas Jackson and you’d be deploying those resources much more practically.