The most likely reason Chelsea are suddenly trying to sell £200k a week first team star

From absolutely nowhere, the idea that Ben Chilwell is up for sale emerged last night.

There had been no talk of this before, but suddenly it was all over the place. It’s all rather mysterious, and we’re curious what the thinking is behind this rumour.

It’s not like the Blues had been heavily linked with other left backs, and people were just connecting the dots to try and figure out how they make room for him: if anything, it’s been considered one of the most settled positions after Lewis Hall and Ian Maatsen were sold, leaving Chilwell and Marc Cucurella as primary options with Levi Colwill available to cover.

It’s also not like the sporting directors are convinced that Cucurella is the future, and that that means Chilwell needs to be sold: let’s not forget that they actually did their best to loan Cucurella out a year ago, and while he did have some decent games for us through the season, didn’t do enough to change the perception of him that vastly.

A mystery with more twists to come

So what’s really going on? Why the sudden urge to sell Chilwell – or at least give the impression they’re selling him? There’s no pressing need to make money, nor is there a top tier target we want to make space for…. unless there is actually a top target the club are looking at behind the scenes, whose name just hasn’t yet hit the headlines.

To us, that feels like the most logical explanation for the sudden urge to sell a first team player without much warning. If concrete links to a left back start emerging in the weeks to come, the pieces will start to fall ingo place.

Or perhaps they’re just looking to get Chilwell’s £200k weekly salary off the books?

Either way, this news is an interesting twist in this summer, and one we expect to bring plenty more headlines.