Chelsea “willing to negotiate” over two deals for players they can still sell this summer | OneFootball

Chelsea did a good job of shedding a lot of players from their packed squad this summer, but as always there were a couple who didn’t manage to get a move away.

Sterling and Disasi proving hard to shift even as final options close

Raheem Sterling and Enzo Maresca in a montage.

Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi were both first team players just a couple of years ago, but have now been frozen out for some time. By the sounds of things, Disasi turned down a few loan offers and saw some late potential action fall through.

Sterling meanwhile is on such big wages that it remains difficult to get any interest in him going. We were basically incredibly lucky that Arsenal were willing to take him on loan a year ago, and nobody is biting our hand off to be in that position this year, unfortunately.

Chelsea desperate for deus ex machina

There are potential solutions, of course.

According to a report in CaughtOffside today, Chelsea remain hopeful they can offload both to Saudi Arabia before their window closes on the 23rd of September.

“Chelsea are willing to negotiate, possibly for lower asking prices now,” their source said.

“At least one deal could go through before the winter window closes in Saudi Arabia.”

“Sterling and Disasi are not in Enzo Maresca’s plans. The club would prefer permanent exits over loaning them out again.”

We heard exclusively from our own sources that Saudi club Neom had made an offer of €20m for Disasi, and were hoping to take advantage of Chelsea’s difficulty in selling him to get him for cheap.

Sterling has made it very clear repeatedly that he wants to stay in London, and certainly doesn’t want to go to Saudi. But maybe the prospect of not playing for a whole year will change his mind?

We’re not super confident in either case, but for as long as that window remains open, we’ve got a chance.