Chelsea's sporting directors deny "embarrassing error" over popular defender transfer decisions

Today at 05:07 AM

Trevoh Chalobah's recall to Chelsea in the last 24 hours has led to us having to repeat the story of why the whole affair is so embarrassing – but just to sum it up again.

They gave him a new contract at the end of 2022 to reward him for good form. Then tried to sell him in the summer of 2023. An injury meant he couldn't go, he worked his way back into the team last season and proved to be our best defender. His reward? Being put up for sale again, with signings by the sporting directors like Axel Disasi, Benoit Badiashile and Tosin Adarabioyo preferred to him (despite not having performed as well on the pitch).

They then froze him out and left him off the preseason tour, still failed to sell him, loaned him to Crystal Palace, and have now broken that loan 6 months in to get Chalobah back, having suffered some injuries at the back and realised that the players they bought aren't as good.

Chelsea back their decisions in latest media briefing

An embarrassing admission of having bungled a player's future multiple times? Well, not according to the briefings they're giving the media. Hilariously, they're still defending themselves over this. Just look at what Liam Twomey has written for the Athletic today, repeating what he's been

"Chelsea's decision to recall him to the first-team squad only five months later has been perceived by many outsiders as a tacit admission of an embarrassing error of squad planning by Winstanley and Stewart, but that is not the way it is being perceived within the club hierarchy."

Well, that would say that wouldn't they? "Me slipping on ice and falling comically has been perceived by many outsiders as an embarrassing slapstick moment, but that is not the way it is being perceived by me."