Chelsea could farm out £1m a week in wages to Premier League clubs if Blues employ Romelu Lukaku tactics | OneFootball

Things are about to get crazy at Chelsea. They have far too many players, and not nearly enough time (or interest) to get rid of them all.

For that reason, we could see an unprecedented wave of outgoing loans at the club in the next weeks, as the sporting directors do all they can to make these unhappy faces and eye-watering contracts someone else’s problem for a year, hoping they can find a more permanent solution next summer.

It’s not an ideal solution for anyone – but it beats having your season ruined by a lack of harmony in the dressing room.

Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley at Stamford Bridge.

The loan army returns in a more advanced form

We all remember the days of the loan army of course – but those were mostly homegrown players or young talents being farmed out to try and improve their resale value. This would be the total opposite end of the scale – the most senior players and the highest earners in the squad being bundled out of the back door just to stop their frustrations and unhappiness leaking out and contaminating the rest of the group.

Surely there’s no chance we can keep a bomb squad of 10 to 15 players training into the season? And if that’s to be avoided, unless there’s a quite unprecedented avalanche of sales in these final two weeks, the only solutions are Romelu Lukaku-style “out of sight, out of mind” deals where these big earners get their wages paid elsewhere and watch their book value gradually tick down until someone is ready to buy them.

The twist, of course, is that there are only 3 foreign loan slots left – so the majority of these players will have to be loaned within the Premier League. Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling are on £500k a week between them along – add in another 4 or 5 players and you easily reach £1m a week.