Mysterious Romano leaks seem to show Chelsea putting £40m midfielder on the market

After a quiet day of Chelsea news, at 11pm last night Fabrizio Romano dropped an exclusive which got everyone talking.

The insider published a Tweet which claimed that Carney Chukwuemeka’s contract with the club has a £40m release clause – something we’ve never heard about before.

It also added that “Chelsea insist on their position not to allow talented midfielder to leave on loan,” and that “every approach for potential loan [for Chukwuemeka] in the recent months has been rejected so far.”

This came totally out of nowhere – there had not been any serious speculation about transfer or loans beyond a bit of idle chatter in the last few weeks.

What this tells us about Chelsea’s summer plans

Now this is all very interesting, and we’re very curious about what’s happening here.

The very same day that Chelsea confirmed the signing of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester, Romano produces this information which basically seems to be putting Chukwuemeka up for sale as a means of enabling that move.

It reads as though it’s been sent to Romano almost word for word from people inside Chelsea trying to effectively make their stance on the midfielder clear: he’s available for £40m, but not available for loan.

Of course it’s also possible that the information has been given to Romano by Chukwuemeka’s camp, trying to engineer an exit for their client as they see his chances for minutes reduced even further.

Either way, no matter who is behind this very deliberate looking leak, it feels like a long shot from their perspective. Carney certainly has the potential to be a £40m player, but nobody is going to pay that right now given he’s been totally unable to stay fit all season, and has played very little for two full years now.

They may not want to loan him out, but if they want him to grow his value, that’s the best option.