Exclusive: Chelsea must make 2 impossible sales to bring either of skilful pair to Stamford Bridge | OneFootball

Our writer Simon Phillips has an exclusive today where he talks about the future of Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise, the Crystal Palace pair that Chelsea have been linked with increasingly regularly.

He says that the only way either of them can come in is if we sell not one but two of our current crop of less fancied wingers – Mykhailo Mudryk, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke.

Without that, given the needs elsewhere, Chelsea are just not liquid enough to bring in any new players in that position without getting into serious FFP and PSR problems.

Noni Madueke celebrates an important win.

Why a single sale looks impossible – let alone a double

We totally trust Simon and his sources, who have proved to be spot on time and again. But if it’s true that we need to sell two of those players to fund the purchase of one of the Palace pair, we simply can’t see it happening this summer.

There are a number of reasons for that, but what it boils down to is basically a result of the financial engineering that’s going on at Chelsea. Mudryk and Madueke have been bought for big money on long contracts. If Chelsea take a loss on them, it just deepens their financial hole further. Keeping them on the books without realising a loss actually allows more flexibility than taking the hit and moving on.

Sterling’s situation is more simple – his wages are huge, and there are few (if any) teams who can afford to take him off our hands. We’re pretty sure the sporting directors would love to cash in, even for a relatively low transfer fee, but they must know they can’t force him out, and as it stands we’re not hearing anything about serious interest.

So fans who are desperate to see Olise or Eze in the team next year may have to wait.