the Chelsea News
·30 July 2025
Athletic sources on why Chelsea dumped Renato Veiga for exciting new option

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Yahoo sportsthe Chelsea News
·30 July 2025
The next Chelsea deal coming down the transfer pipeline is the signing of Jorrel Hato. According to well connected reporter Ben Jacobs, we can expect that deal to be done sometime in the next 48 hours.
That made it perfect timing for an Athletic deep dive on the Ajax defender and his qualities. As we wrote about here, Chelsea are looking for him to be mentored by Marc Cucurella, who he will rotate with at left back.
Jorrel Hato on the ball. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Hato’s long term future may be in central defence, but for now he will start inverted on the left, just as Cucurella often does. The piece also covers Chelsea’s more general plan under Enzo Maresca to buy versatile players who can rotate and cover different areas both within games and between games.
“Chelsea sources, kept anonymous to protect relationships, say they want to give Maresca the ability to rotate across all positions as he balances Premier League, Champions League and domestic cup commitments this season,” the report reads.
They also note that Maresca’s comments from last season about wanting players who “adapt… learn to play in different positions” was likely pointed at Renato Veiga, who we signed last summer to cover for Cucurella in a similar manner to Hato.
But Veiga didn’t like being used as a backup left back. He wanted to play centrally so he could cement his place for Portugal at the next World Cup. He was loan out in January to allow him to play more, and is now up for sale. Chelsea could get almost as much for him as they are set to pay for Hato. Given the youth Dutchman’s potential, that feels like a sweet deal.