Chelsea’s summer sales are underway – and there is scope to match the £300m raised last year

Chelsea have greater aspirations for the season ahead, but they have made a good start towards reclaiming their crown as the biggest sellers in the transfer market.

Last year Chelsea became the first Premier League club to bring in over £300million ($403m) by offloading players during the summer window. There is already a fair chance they will be able to do so again this time round.

The summer sales are not something that excites fans too much. Understandably, their main focus during every transfer window is on those the club is bringing in. So far Chelsea have acquired only Marco Palestra from Atalanta, although Geovany Quenda (Sporting CP) and Emmanuel Emegha (Strasbourg) will also be new faces having had deals agreed in advance last year.

Yet the need to comply with financial rules, both in the Premier League and with UEFA, makes outgoings significant. It is pretty simple logic, but the more you raise the more can be reinvested back into the squad.

Chelsea have already brought in around £120m through the departures of Marc Cucurella (Real Madrid), Andrey Santos (Barcelona), Tyrique George (Everton) and Jimmy-Jay Morgan (West Bromwich Albion). There is also the unusual bonus of receiving significant compensation from Manchester City and their new head coach Enzo Maresca after the manner of his departure from Stamford Bridge earlier in the year.

But Chelsea have the potential to raise so much more, and there remains a need to cull the squad. With no European football in 2026-27, it would be unhealthy to have too many players merely making up the numbers in training.

As has been shown with Cucurella and Santos, some individuals are coveted elsewhere and easy to sell for a good sum. Enzo Fernandez and Malo Gusto have not been included on Chelsea’s ‘not for sale’ list, either, but a stumbling block for their departures remains the club’s valuations (£120m and £75m respectively). Not many teams can afford that. Regardless, Chelsea will not be disappointed if both end up staying.

The real difficulty comes with offloading players you no longer really need nor want for the fee you crave.

With the World Cup coming to a close, the market is expected to kick into gear and this is a chance for more Chelsea players to head out the door. In some cases, people may need reminding of the positives, rather than the negatives, offered by those who might be allowed to leave. Yet the sales pitches should not be that onerous.

Take Alejandro Garnacho, for example. Eyebrows were raised when news emerged that Chelsea are asking for €50m (£42.5m; $57m) for the Argentine winger. Given the way he struggled at Stamford Bridge after joining from Manchester United for £40m, you can understand why some might question such a sizeable amount.

And yet he is the same age as Santos, who has basically been sold to Manchester United for that figure. Garnacho has the experience of playing more Premier League games than the Brazilian, and attacking players tend to move for a premium. Despite his issues in a Chelsea shirt, he scored as many goals as the esteemed Estevao Willian (eight) in all competitions across 2025-26. At 22, there remains potential for improvement.

That applies to 23-year-old striker Liam Delap, too. OK, three goals in 47 appearances hardly represents motivation for suitors to reach for the chequebook, but his 12 Premier League goals for relegated Ipswich Town in 2024-25 are still fresh in the memory. The thought of getting the forward back to that kind of form is surely going to be tempting for some.

Another forward they might cash in on is Nicolas Jackson, albeit he will be on the club’s pre-season tour, which starts next week.

Chelsea fans know better than most his finishing can be flawed, and his on-field discipline is hardly exemplary. But he has a very respectable 42 goal involvements (30 goals, 12 assists) in only 81 matches for the club. He may have been a bit-part figure on loan at Bayern Munich last season, but the 25-year-old now has the experience of winning a domestic league and cup double to add to the Conference League and Club World Cup he lifted with Chelsea.

In need of a centre-back? Well, Chelsea have a few going spare.

For a total package of £35m, England World Cup squad member Trevoh Chalobah would surely represent a smart bit of business. Serie A side Como are very keen, and no wonder. He has played 151 times for Chelsea, no mean feat for an academy graduate. Chalobah, winner of five major honours, has proved he can quickly settle elsewhere by the manner in which he performed on loan for Crystal Palace in 2024.

Making a case for Axel Disasi would have been tough at the start of this year. The France international had become one of football’s forgotten men in the first half of last season when he did not secure a transfer away and was training separately from the first-team squad. However, you could argue he was Chelsea’s most consistent centre-back — albeit while on loan at West Ham United across the second half of the campaign.

The 28-year-old was a big factor as to why West Ham still had a chance of staying up until the final day. His no-nonsense defending should make for an easy highlight reel for Chelsea to put together.

Benoit Badiashile might be a bit more of a challenge. But when he’s good, he can be very good. For example, Badiashile looked accomplished from the start up against Alexander Isak in Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Liverpool last October. Before injury issues started to affect his confidence levels, Chelsea supporters would sing a song in homage to him about how co-owner “Todd Boehly went to France in a Lamborghini, bought himself a centre-back, Benoit Badiashile”.

With a tweak here and there to bring up to date, the followers of Badiashile’s next club might enjoy a good sing-song about him, too.

Denmark and USMNT goalkeepers Filip Jorgensen and Gaga Slonina are keen for a fresh start in pursuit of greater game time. At 24 and 22 respectively, their peak as goalkeepers is still many years away.

Jorgensen has played 80 times for Chelsea and Villarreal, 14 of which were during Chelsea’s victorious Conference League campaign in 2024-25, when he registered more than 40 saves. Did his role in the Champions League defeat at Paris Saint-Germain in March expose flaws? Most certainly. But there is plenty of material to work with.

Having represented Chicago Fire, Eupen and Barnsley (both on loan), Slonina has something to build on, too.

There are others, too. Chelsea are considering whether Marc Guiu leaves on loan or on a permanent basis. If it is the latter, this is a 20-year-old with an impressive resume: he emerged through the Barcelona academy, is a Spain Under-21 international and scored eight times in 29 appearances for Chelsea. He is raw, admittedly, but has plenty of scope to improve.

Even the marginalised David Datro Fofana can point to the four Premier League goals he scored on loan at Burnley in 2024, plus a record of six in 13 for the Turkish club Fatih Karagumruk last season as evidence he is worthy of a bid.

Even if Fernandez and Gusto stay put, there is more than enough talent listed here to take Chelsea above the £300m barrier for a second time. Being ‘elite sellers’ is not the trophy Chelsea crave, but it can still be impressive.