BEN CHILWELL has been thrown a career lifeline after being offered a Chelsea escape route, reports suggest.
The 27-year-old has effectively been frozen out of Chelsea‘s squad by new boss Enzo Maresca after being told he does not feature in the manager’s plans.
Chilwell, who signed for the club for £45million from Leicester in 2020 and was named vice-captain last season, is down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge.
Marc Cucurella and new signing Renato Veiga are both ahead of him for the left-back slot.
Chilwell had been joined in the Blues “bomb squad” by Raheem Sterling and Trevoh Chalobah, who both managed to secure loan deals away from the club on deadline day.
However, the 21-cap England international was unable to secure a transfer despite reported interest from Brentford and Manchester United, though the latter are understood to have never initiated talks.
Instead, Chilwell, who is earning £200,000-a-week with three years to run on his deal, will have to secure a transfer overseas if he is to earn playing minutes this season.
According to GiveMeSport, Chilwell is thought to be content at Stamford Bridge and will not move unless the right move presents itself.
The Dutch and Portuguese transfer windows both shut tonight, as well as the transfer window for Saudi Arabia, although it’s understood Chilwell is not keen on a move to the Middle East.
One window that will remain open for a while longer is the Turkish Super Lig window, which does not close until September 13.
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The report claims Chilwell has been offered the chance to link up with former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho at Fenerbahce, who lost Ferdi Kadioglu to Brighton late in the window.
That would see him link up with a host of ex-Premier League stars.
These include Fred, Allan Saint-Maximin, Çağlar Söyüncü, Dusan Tadic, Sofyan Amrabat, Cenk Tosun and Edin Dzeko.
Former Rangers star Ryan Kent is also at the club, along with well-known names on the continent such as Cengiz Ünder, Youssef En-Nesyri, Dominik Livakovic and Emre Mor.
CHELSEA are a circus — aren’t they?, writes Troy Deeney.
But the bigger concern should be if somehow, some way, Todd Boehly’s insane master-plan brings about success this season.
Finish in the top four. Win a trophy like the FA Cup.
He will then turn around and say: “See, it works” and all of a sudden, other clubs will begin considering copying this mad model to try and compete in the Premier League.
Before you know it, there will be a bigger divide between the top clubs and the rest and this country’s top flight will become something we have been fighting against — a Super League.
The smaller sides and promoted teams will be wiped out by the elite and will end up saying, ‘What’s the point?’
Football as we know it will change, and there will be no going back.
As a neutral, you don’t want to wish failure on a club or a regime, but it’s depressing to think about.
We should almost be looking at it in amazement — the owners have come in with this model and they’ve treated it as if they are buying stocks and shares, not players or human beings.
Boehly has wiped away any sense of sentiment or old-school values from that club and the worrying thing is that he doesn’t seem to care.
Does he even like football?
Read Troy Deeney’s hard-hitting opinion on Boehly’s Chelsea shambles in full.
Or check out all of Troy’s columns on SunSport.
