Chelsea have delivered a brutal signal of intent, excluding Raheem Sterling and eight other players from their official first-team squad list ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Chelsea’s £200m Clear-Out: Nine High-Profile Players, Including Sterling, Left Off Website
The club published a 31-man roster on their website, pointedly omitting the high-profile England winger and several teammates deemed surplus to requirements.
Sterling headlines a group insiders dub Chelsea’s ‘bomb squad’ – players the Blues actively seek to sell this summer. His exclusion follows an underwhelming loan spell at Arsenal last season and intensifies speculation about an imminent exit.
Clubs like Napoli, Fulham, and Bayer Leverkusen have shown interest in acquiring the experienced attacker.
The purge extends beyond Sterling. Also missing from the website’s squad list are Ben Chilwell, Axel Disasi, Renato Veiga, Alfie Gilchrist, Carney Chukwuemeka, Lesley Ugochukwu, Armando Broja, and David Datro Fofana.
This mass omission confirms Chelsea’s aggressive push to trim their squad and generate transfer funds.
Interestingly, the list does include Christopher Nkunku, despite widespread reports the French forward also faces an uncertain future.
His inclusion suggests a potential sale might materialize later, or that discussions about his role are still ongoing, unlike the definitively excluded nine.
New signings, including recent arrival Jorrel Hato from Ajax, feature prominently in the 31-man squad as manager Enzo Maresca shapes his group for the campaign.
Chelsea face Leverkusen and AC Milan in pre-season friendlies before opening their Premier League season at home to Crystal Palace on August 17th.
The absence of Sterling and the others signals a significant changing of the guard at Stamford Bridge.
