Chelsea’s attempt to con Everton into ridiculous swap deal doomed to failure

The depths of Chelsea’s desperation in the transfer window has been exposed by the news that they were attempting to push a pair of players onto Everton in order to land one of the Toffees most important stars.

The West Londoners have had a mixed start to the 2024/25 season, with a thumping 6-2 win over Wolves, a 2-0 loss to reigning champions Man City and a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace the sum total of their three games so far.

A busy transfer window also saw 24 players moved on according to transfermarkt.

Chelsea wanted Calvert-Lewin in swap deal

It’s since come to light, via Give Me Sport sources, that Chelsea had tried to offer Everton Axel Disasi and David Datro Fofana in exchange for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Though the striker has shown no apparent sign of extending his contract with Everton and, as such, might be considered a sellable asset, there was never going to be a realistic chance he would be swapped with Disasi and Datro Fofana.

The former has played just 11 minutes this season (WhoScored), whilst the latter has just three Premier League appearances under his belt from two seasons ago (transfermarkt) before being sent out on loan.

It’s a bit of a head scratcher to think that Chelsea would believe that Sean Dyche would’ve been taken in to such an extent as to accept those two players in exchange for his main man.

What the potential deal does hint at is the West Londoner’s desperation to stay on the right side of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), and not falling foul of any other element of Financial Fair Play.

Of course, the transfer window has now passed, but the pair can still be offloaded abroad and that may well be the Blues focus over the next few days.

Any reduction in wage bill is clearly of help to the club and time will tell if they have any late transfer market successes in that regard.