Chelsea’s potential forced firesale could see three stars join Lukaku in summer exit

Ralf Rangnick discusses Chelsea's situation

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Chelsea might have to sell four players this summer including Romelu Lukaku. It comes after Roman Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK government and had his assets seized.

Chelsea could be forced into a mass clearout this summer to keep themselves from going under amid a turbulent time in the club’s history.

Blues owner Roman Abramovich has had his assets frozen by the government as a result of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago.

It has left the London side in a sticky situation with the Russian now unable to sell the club as he had planned to.

Tickets cannot be sold, the club shop has been closed and some staff have already been laid off with Chelsea unable to spend any money.

And football financial expert Rob Wilson believes the Blues might have to offload several top earners in order to balance the books.

He told Sky Sports: “I think that’s the real threat for the football club.

“If we park the potential administration if they can’t pay those players over the short term, I think over the summer we’re going to see a number of players having to, probably, be sold.

“I imagine that the license will be renegotiated with the Government to make sure any potential new buy can come in.”

Lukaku is the biggest earner at Stamford Bridge, earning a huge £325,000-a-week, and his indications earlier this year that he wanted to return to Inter Milan in the future make him one of the first on the chopping block.

But there are several players at Chelsea who are raking it in, including the likes of Kai Havertz, N’Golo Kante and Timo Werner, and they could also leave to help stop an outrageous cash flow.

Werner, who takes him £270,000-a-week, has been linked with a return to Borussia Dortmund as a potential Erling Haaland replacement.

He is the most likeliest of that trio to depart given his struggles at Stamford Bridge since joining from RB Leipzig in 2020.

Whereas Havertz and Kante, on £310,000-a-week and £290,000-a-week respectively, would not be short of suitors with Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and Manchester United previously interested in their services.

Meanwhile, Thomas Tuchel has admitted that the situation is still unclear amid the turmoil.

“As long as we have enough shirts and a bus to drive to the games, we’ll be there and will compete hard,” he said.

“We take it day by day. I didn’t see that coming yesterday and I don’t know what is coming tomorrow.”

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