Chelsea told which Tottenham and West Ham stars to poach if relegation fears realised

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·12. Mai 2026

Chelsea told which Tottenham and West Ham stars to poach if relegation fears realised

Blues plotting bargain buys if arch rivals fall into Championship

Joe Cole has revealed which Tottenham and West Ham players Chelsea should consider signing this summer in the event that they suffer relegation.

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West and Tottenham are in a two-team battle to avoid the last remaining relegation place in the Premier League table.

West Ham suffered a further blow in their race to stay up when their stoppage-time equaliser by Callum Wilson was ruled out by VAR on Sunday, confirming they fell to a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.

But Spurs were unable to seize full advantage and gave up a one-goal lead to draw 1-1 at home to Leeds on Monday night in a result that left them just two points ahead of the Hammers and kept Nuno Espirito Santo’s side in the mix for survival.

Now, ex-Chelsea winger Cole — who also played for West Ham — has run the rule over which Spurs and West Ham players should be on Chelsea’s transfer list in the event that they are relegated.

Whichever club drops down to the Championship will have to sell many of their best players due to financial limitations.

“With West Ham, Jarrod Bowen would be a great player for anybody if they end up going down,” Cole told PaddyPower.

“Suddenly with West Ham there’s a few players you look at and think ‘they’d be alright’. [Konstantinos] Mavropanos looks like a proper player now. [Mateus] Fernandes is someone who a few teams will be lurking around.”

Joe Cole hopes Chelsea will go in for Jarrod Bowen if West Ham are relegated

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Cole continued: “With Spurs, you’re looking at the players who are not playing at the moment, because there aren’t many in the team at the moment that I’d pick. Micky van de Ven is probably the only one for me from the team that played at the weekend.

“I’d take James Maddison and [Mohammed] Kudus when they’re back fit. Archie Gray is one for the future.

“Chelsea are in a situation now where they’ve got to look at players in that bracket, rather than looking at the top European clubs and picking off their best players. That was where Chelsea were shopping traditionally. Now you’ve got to find players on the way up.

“Mateus Fernandes would be a good one for Chelsea, and Van de Ven from Spurs too.

“Micky Van de Ven I don’t think is ready to go to a top European club yet, like Real Madrid or Barcelona. So with Chelsea in the position they’re in at the moment, it might be a good fit.”