Chelsea are open to letting Carney Chukwuemeka leave only if AC Milan sign him on loan with a buy obligation
Chelsea are locked in negotiations with AC Milan over the transfer of central midfielder Carney Chukwuemeka.
Carney Chukwuemeka joined Chelsea from Aston Villa in 2022 in a deal worth £20m but has seen his time at West London ravaged by injury problems. The midfielder impressed on the pre-season tour and started the past campaign well under Mauricio Pochettino before picking up an untimely knee injury. This limited him to only 12 appearances across all competitions during the 2023/24 campaign for the Blues.
Regardless of his lack of involvement for Chelsea, AC Milan are supposedly looking to bring Chukwuemeka to San Siro. According to reliable Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, AC Milan and Chelsea remain in discussion over a potential deal for the youngster.
However, the Blues do not plan to send the central midfielder out on loan with an option to buy. This has resulted in Milan looking to insert an obligation clause into a loan deal depending on the player’s appearances, Di Marzio adds.
As per another Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Chelsea remain happy with Chukwuemeka and don’t want to loan him out. They will only agree on a permanent transfer for him, provided the club receives a good proposal.
This leaves Chukwuemeka’s future uncertain at Stamford Bridge heading into the 2024/25 season. The 20-year-old could become surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge if new manager Enzo Maresca brings in midfield reinforcements this summer.
In Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Conor Gallagher, Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu, the Blues are already well-stocked in the midfield department and the potential signing of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City would see Chukwuemeka slip further down the pecking order. It is not an ideal position to be in, and despite Chelsea supposedly happy with him, the club negotiating with Milan simply means we are open to letting him go if certain criteria are fulfilled.
Chelsea and Milan have done plenty of business in recent years, with the likes of Fikayo Tomori, Olivier Giroud, Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek moving to San Siro from West London. It would be a real shame if Chukwuemeka was to leave the club given how highly regarded he is in the English circuit.
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Nonetheless, at 20, the England youth international needs to play regularly to unlock his true potential and if not at Chelsea, it would be in his best interests to ply his trade elsewhere.