Chelsea are poised for a busy end to the summer window as they look to complete a plethora of deals, in terms of both incomings and outgoings at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues indirectly signed Julio Enciso as their latest acquisition, with the Paraguayan set to join Chelsea in 2026 following a year at sister Club Strasbourg in Ligue 1 – which is seen as a bargain £17 million deal for a player who’s already impressed in the Premier League.
Due to their complex arrangement with UEFA after being found guilty of breaching FFP rules, Chelsea must sell before they can buy right now.
The likes of Christopher Nkunku and Nicolas Jackson are expected to depart Stamford Bridge before the deadline on September 1, among others, and these exits will be crucial as Chelsea chase a double deal for Man United’s Alejandro Garnacho and RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons.
Chelsea are being forced to sell players who were in their Conference League squad last season so they can make room for the likes of Simons and Garnacho in their A-list Champions League squad, with sales of fringe men not counting towards their attempted ‘positive transfer balance’.
“Chelsea’s complex agreement with UEFA included a record fine worth £26.8m rising to £78.5m, but the key sporting sanction warned how the Club ‘may not register any new player on List A to UEFA Club competitions unless the List A Transfer Balance is positive’,” wrote journalist Kieran Gill recently.
“Chelsea have less than two weeks to prove to UEFA that they have balanced their books enough to be permitted to add their abundance of summer signings to Enzo Maresca’s Champions League squad for this season.
“UEFA have now confirmed that their auditors will only be accounting for the money made on those who were named in the squad submitted by Chelsea for last season’s Conference League knockout stages.
“Crucially, that means the sales of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall to Everton, Noni Madueke to Arsenal and Mathis Amougou to Strasbourg will work towards satisfying UEFA, but the exits of Felix etc. will not.”
Unfortunately for Maresca, this means they need to find buyers for the likes of Nkunku and Jackson pretty quickly.
Chelsea set to finalise terms with Xavi Simons next week
In the meantime, both Garnacho and Simons are forced to wait patiently for their desired moves to London.
As per Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, sharing an exclusive bit of detail, Chelsea have planned a six-year contract for the former after verbally agreeing terms, and they’re set to finalise it in written form next week.
The ex-PSG playmaker has been a revelation for Leipzig since initially joining on loan at the start of 2023/2024, making his move permanent in January this year, but a switch to Chelsea appears imminent if BlueCo can secure departures first.
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