Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell has joined partner club Strasbourg – but the futures of fellow ‘bomb squad’ members Raheem Sterling and Axel Disasi remain uncertain.
With two years left on his Blues deal, Chilwell has signed the same-length contract with the French club, which is also owned by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
The move helps avoid having an extra unwanted player in manager Enzo Maresca’s squad, despite Chelsea’s difficulties to get one of their highest earners – signed under the previous Roman Abramovich ownership – off their books.
Chilwell, 28, was convinced to join Strasbourg after reassuring conversations with their English manager Liam Rosenior that he will contribute.
There remains a chance the left-back can get in the England squad before the World Cup under former Blues manager Thomas Tuchel, while he will also get a chance to play in Europe in the Conference League.
Chilwell is the sixth player to leave Chelsea for Strasbourg this summer.
Young prospects Mike Penders and Kendry Paez have moved to the BlueCo-owned Ligue 1 club on loan.
Mamadou Sarr joined the Stamford Bridge outfit in a permanent transfer from Strasbourg in the early June transfer window, before returning to the French club on loan following the Club World Cup.
In addition to the three loanees, Strasbourg signed Chelsea academy defender Ishe Samuels-Smith for £6.5m and midfielder Mathis Amougou for around £12m.
However, it was announced on Tuesday that Samuels-Smith, 19, had rejoined Chelsea, a month after joining Strasbourg – but that he would now immediately leave Stamford Bridge for a season-long loan at Championship side Swansea City.
The reasons cited were that a series of events impacted his development opportunities, including the addition of Chilwell and a contract renewal for defender Ismael Doukoure, who had previously been frozen out at Strasbourg.
The £6.5m was eventually refunded, with similarities in the case cited to when Tyler Dibling rejoined Southampton from Chelsea in 2022 because of “homesickness”.
Fifa’s loan rules state a club cannot loan more than three players to the same club in a single season, so only a permanent deal was possible for Chilwell.
However, there is no law to prevent Chelsea selling players to Strasbourg as long as the fee reflects fair market value.
Last summer, Manchester City and Manchester United were allowed to take their places in European competitions despite multi-club ownership conflicts with Girona and Nice.
That was after they agreed not to transfer players “permanently or on loan, either directly or indirectly from July 2024 to September 2025”.
That arrangement has now ended following the closure of the window.
Sterling, Disasi left in exile
Chelsea’s highest earner on a reported £325,000-a-week is England forward Sterling and he has now remained unsold in this window, along with France international defender Disasi.
Sterling, 30, spent last season on loan at Arsenal but struggled to make an impact with Mikel Arteta’s side, while Disasi, 27, spent the second half of the campaign on loan at Aston Villa.
Neither was selected for the summer’s Club World Cup tournament, which Chelsea won by beating Paris St-Germain 3-0 in the final, and they trained in a separate ‘bomb squad’ after returning for pre-season.
Sterling is known to have had interest from Fulham and Bayer Leverkusen, but neither club formalised their interest, with a London move having been the forward’s preference so he could stay close to his school-age children.
Disasi wanted to move back to his native Monaco, but Chelsea ran out of international loan spots, using the last one to bank £14.3m in a loan fee for Nicolas Jackson to join Bayern Munich.
There are no such loan limits within the Premier League and Disasi had options to join Bournemouth or West Ham, but neither option materialised.
