Chelsea midfielder may not be sealing transfer away after all

Chelsea midfielder Cesare Casadei is reportedly back training with the Blues’ first-team despite numerous transfer rumours about him possibly leaving the club this summer.

The 21-year-old has not seen much playing time for Chelsea so far, having spent time out on loan at both Reading and Leicester City, with BBC Sport recently mentioning that he could join Leicester as part of the Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall deal, while Simon Phillips has also reported on Napoli’s interest in the player.

Now, however, it seems there might be a way back for Casadei at Stamford Bridge, with The Athletic suggesting that there could be an opening for him now that Lesley Ugochukwu has gone out on loan, with the Italian also back training with the first-team.

Chelsea have signed a lot of young players during the Todd Boehly era, but it will be a test of this philosophy if someone like Casadei is able to make the step up into the first-team.

In truth, this supposed long-term Chelsea project isn’t going too well so far, and it remains to be seen if the signing of someone like Casadei was really worth it, with so many other similar signings taking place and leaving their squad a little bloated.

Ugochukwu is another who might well have been in with a chance of competing for a place, but he’s now gone out on loan, so it will be interesting to see what that means for Casadei, who will still face plenty of competition from big names like Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo to get into Enzo Maresca’s team.