Chelsea delay return of outcasts Lukaku, Ziyech and Aubameyang| SolSportHQ
Chelsea have pushed back the return date of their unwanted stars as club and players seek to part ways.
Mail Sport reported on Monday that Chelsea were considering delaying the comebacks of some of the players they are trying to offload until after the squad of stars who are in Mauricio Pochettino’s plans have departed for the club’s US tour.
And Romelu Lukaku, Hakim Ziyech and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang have now been given revised return date of Monday having originally been due back at Cobham this week.
Christian Pulisic, another wantaway star, has managed to seal his departure before having to return to Cobham and will undergo a medical with AC Milan on Wednesday.
Lukaku, Ziyech and Aubameyang are among the other players whose Chelsea futures are up in the air with talks about moves away all ongoing.
Chelsea have been keen to try and avoid the headache of having a first pre-season campaign under Pochettino complicated by players being split into too many different groups at Cobham.
Chelsea’s new head coach is working with those he wants to proceed with which will be added to this week. Summer striker signing from Villarreal, Nicolas Jackson, joined on Tuesday.
Another group being led by former goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini contains a number of last season’s loanees and younger players who Chelsea are also open to offers for.
Delaying the comebacks of their unwanted stars was one solution being considered to prevent the need for a further group of players to also be in training at the same time and any potential awkwardness around the club’s Cobham HQ.
It will also allow further time to sort out moves for those who are not in Pochettino plans and to further trim the squad to a more workable number in time or his return to England. Chelsea are in the States for just over two weeks.
Lukaku wants a move back to Inter. They have not yet tabled a proposal to satisfy Chelsea who paid £97.5m to sign the Belgian striker from the Italian side two years ago and want to limit the hit they have to take on that outlay and are prepared to accept around £40m.
Juventus have also shown interest along with Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal who, so far, Lukaku has shown no interest in joining.
Aubameyang is wanted by clubs in Europe and also Saudi Arabia while Ziyech is also still speaking to Saudi Pro League after the collapse of his move to Al-Nassr.
