• Transfer News

Chelsea may sell Cech if no buyer can be found for Torres

ESPN staff
July 29, 2014
Is Petr Cech's time up at Chelsea?

Jose Mourinho has revealed that he has to sell one of Chelsea's foreign players as the club continue to try and offload £50 million flop Fernando Torres.

Clubs can only name 17 overseas players over the age of 21 in their official 25-man squads, and the re-signing of Didier Drogba means Mourinho's side now has 18 who are realistically vying for a first-team place.

And, according to the Daily Telegraph, Mourinho could be forced to sell goalkeeper Petr Cech if he cannot find a buyer for Torres - who has attracted interest from former club Atletico Madrid and Monaco, but the £20m price tag and £175,000-a-week wages could prove a stumbling block.

Another player Mourinho is happy to let go is midfielder John Obi Mikel, but the midfielder has also generated little interest. It could mean the Chelsea manager is forced to allow Cech to join Paris Saint-Germain, with Australian Mark Schwarzer providing back-up for Belgium stopper Thibaut Courtois. Englishmen Jamal Blackman or Mitchell Beeney would be third choice.

Jose: We need Drogba

Didier Drogba is back at Stamford Bridge on a one-year deal © @chelseafc
  • Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea "need" a player of Didier Drogba's mental stature if they are to challenge for the Premier League title this season.
  • Click here to continue reading

"From the group you are expecting us to have as a squad, I have to send one away because we have one extra foreign player," Mourinho said.

"So from all these players, if you think all of them have to stay, you are wrong. One of them has to go."

Romelu Lukaku is still considered an under-21 player by the Premier League, so selling the Everton and Tottenham target would solve nothing, while new signing Cesc Fabregas counts as a home-grown player thanks to his eight years at Arsenal.

Mourinho can, however, call on an exciting cluster of players from the club's under-21 list. Teenagers Andreas Christensen and Nathan Ake will be part of the first team squad, while Lewis Baker, Izzy Brown and Dominic Solanke were part of the England team that won the Under-17 European Championships this summer.

And Mourinho has predicted big things for the young trio.

"My conscience is, for example, to say to you that I think Baker, Brown, Solanke, if in a few years they are not national team players, I should blame myself," he said. "They are part of a process the club started without me. Now, we have players who will be Chelsea players.

"And when they become Chelsea players, they will become England players, almost for sure. I'm not saying we're doing it just for English football, because it is also about us.

"At the moment, officially in the first team squad, not under-21s coming to join us now and again, we have Christensen, Ake, probably another one because I want to have one more English player.

"Baker, Brown, Solanke and Jeremy Boga. These four are not going to be in my squad because I cannot have 30 in my squad, but these four are going to work with us all season and these four are going to be Chelsea players.

"These three are English - Brown, Solanke and Baker - they have to be Chelsea players and they have to be national team players. They have to.

"And I have this feeling that our academy is bringing players to our level."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
ESPN staff Close