'Only available' - Fabrizio Romano says Chelsea have already made stance clear amid Turkish 'interest'

Chelsea are still able to send players to one country after the closing of the Greek window. The Blues have offloaded players aplenty over the last few months with Enzo Maresca reducing the size of his squad significantly with the help of permanent and loan deals.

The latest departure came in the form of David Datro Fofana, who joined AEK Athens on loan for the season ahead of the window in Greece closing. One window remains open, and that is the Turkish window, which will close on Friday. Chelsea have offloaded almost all of their so-called ‘bomb squad’ members at this point, though one bomb squad man Carney Chukwuemeka has been welcomed back into the first team squad having failed to land a departure.

The £15million signing is far from guaranteed game time, however, and he is likely to struggle for minutes this season behind a long list of players. A move to Galatasaray has been mooted, but the Turkish club are not going to pursue a permanent deal, and that could be a giant obstacle for Chelsea.

According to transfer ‘insider’ Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea will not consider loaning out Chukwuemeka. He told CaughtOffside: “Despite links, I’m not aware of concrete talks with Galatasaray over Chukwuemeka so far. Chelsea always considered Carney only available on a permanent deal, not on loan… so the only way would be to change Chelsea management’s mind, but this hasn’t happened so far.”

Chelsea will likely want to make back the money they spent on Chukwuemeka back in 2022 and then some, with an asking price of £20million having been mentioned over the summer. The 20-year-old also earns a reported £115,000-per-week, so he would not be an easy signing for most interested clubs. A January departure looks more likely for that reason.

As things stand, the young midfielder is under contract until 2028. He has made 23 league appearances for the club so far.