Napoli in for Chelsea midfielder – but Blues desperate to avoid £3m loss on 20 year old | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca’s first team sheet of the season was always going to cause trouble – he’s got about 45 players in the squad. But while all the attention has been on Raheem Sterling, whose camp put out a statement after he was left out of the squad, there are a number of other players who must be more quietly considering their futures.

Chief among them is Carney Chukwuemeka. The writing has been on the wall for him for a while as he played so little in preseason, but now he must really feel like it’s time to get into gear and move away.

The good news for the midfielder is that there does seem to be some interest in him – and he could get escape to Serie A using the same mechanism that’s taking his theoretical teammate Romelu Lukaku away.

Carney Chukwuemeka in preseason action.

Serie A exit possible – but Chelsea desperate to avoid swallowing major loss

Chelsea and Napoli are locked in talks over Lukaku and striker Victor Osimhen, whom the Blues want to come the other direction. Today, Italian transfer site TuttoMercatoWeb have suggested that Chukwuemeka could be included alongside Lukaku as a makeweight.

It would be a separate deal in theory – the speculation is over a loan move with a £15m to £20m option for Napoli to buy him. We’re not sure how Chelsea would feel about that. They paid more than £20m to sign him – would they be ready to swallow a loss?

It’s one thing to have the real figures lost in the details of a big deal involving other players in other directions, but certainly cashing in on Carney at a loss is not a good look for these sporting directors. We’d expect them to do all they can to avoid that.