Chelsea: How Blues' XI could look next season if sanctions remain

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Chelsea XI: How the Blues could line-up next season if sanctions remain

By Rob Hoskin

Published Mar 10, 2022

Chelsea currently can't sign or sell any players with Roman Abramovich's assets being frozen.

LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 05: A general view of the stadium ahead of the Emirates FA Cup Fourth Round match between Chelsea and Plymouth Argyle at Stamford Bridge on February 05, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)

What will happen to Chelsea Football Club?

That is the question everyone is asking on Thursday after it was revealed that owner Roman Abramovich has been sanctioned.

The answer? Well, nobody really knows.

Chelsea can still play football.

But there are a lot of things they can no longer do such as sell tickets, merchandise or sign/sell players.

Quite how long Chelsea will be in this paralysed state is unknown.

While there are bigger things going on at the moment, Chelsea fans will only care about the performance of their side. And what state they will be in in the short term.

So, we've speculated over what Chelsea's XI could look like next season.

With the inability to sign any players - or offer any player a new contract - it seems highly likely Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta will leave in the summer with their current deals expiring.

While there may be no new incomings unless the situation changes, the club will benefit from being unable to sell players.

That's because the likes of Connor Gallagher, Billy Gilmour, Armando Broja and Michy Batshuayi amongst others will return to the club from their loan spells.

It means the Blues could actually enter the 2022/23 season with a rather strong squad despite the uncertainty. Their strongest XI could look a little bit like this:

Chelsea's potential XI for the 2022/23 season

That's certainly not a bad XI, is it?

Edouard Mendy - arguably the best goalkeeper in the world - is still between the sticks.

Of course, with Rudiger, Christensen and Azpilicueta leaving the club, Chelsea are going to be short defensively and it would be a struggle to play a back five. Fortunately, Thiago Silva has already signed a one-year contract extension and Trevor Chalobah has shown he's capable of competing at this level and would form a decent partnership with Ben Chilwell and Reece James on either side of them.

Jorginho and N'Golo Kante will remain in midfield alongside the impressive Gallagher, who is enjoying a fine campaign at Crystal Palace.

Kai Havertz and Mason Mount are in the attacking roles flanking Broja, who gets the nod ahead of Romelu Lukaku.

That still leaves the likes of Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcos Alonso, Malang Sarr, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Gilmour, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Hakim Ziyech and Batshuayi on the bench.

Whether or not Thomas Tuchel will stay manager remains to be seen.

Just as well the club spent as much as it did last summer...