Chelsea face 'dissatisfaction' behind the scenes with Marc Cucurella sale to trigger string of exits
Chelsea's sale of Marc Cucurella to Real Madrid will be the trigger for several more first-team players to depart Stamford Bridge.
That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that the West London club is "not a happy ship" right now.
The Blues moved quickly to offload the left-back for a fee of around £51million, with the end-of-June SCR deadline now just a few weeks away.
Wyness believes the speed at which the deal was concluded suggests that several more exits could follow in the coming weeks.
Chelsea have spent extravagantly on new players in recent years, and the Scottish businessman believes that their expensive acquisitions have now caught up with them.
He emphasised that the task facing Xabi Alonso and Co. has been made even harder by the fact that they won't have revenue from European football next term.
Marc Cucurella exit shows unrest at Chelsea
Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Chelsea are tangled in a "big puzzle" when it comes to meeting financial rulings at the moment.
He noted that the capital club are solely responsible for their own issues, which are now leading to them potentially having to cash in on some key stars.
Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, he stressed that Cucurella certainly won't be the last man to leave before the end of the window.
"Look, there's going to be a few more sales yet because those numbers don't look very good for Chelsea, and they're going to have to work extra hard," Wyness said.
"Cucurella showed the dissatisfaction within the camp as much as anything else. Chelsea is not a happy ship right now, and they're going to have to remove some more of the higher-paid players as well to be able to fit those ratios. And they're doing it, of course, with no European football.
"That's the big thing as well for Chelsea in terms of the Champions League. It's a big puzzle that they've got themselves into, all of their own making. But yes, I expect a few more to go from Chelsea before the end of the window, but be sure about that."
Who will be the next man to leave Chelsea?
Football Insider revealed last week that Chelsea will sell Tyrique George this summer, regardless of whether Everton choose to activate their purchase option for the winger.
The Toffees are currently weighing up whether to trigger their £22m option to buy George, but Chelsea are already adamant that they will accept any
The forward could soon become the next man to leave Stamford Bridge, while there has also been major scrutiny surrounding the futures of the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Liam Delap.
Alonso and his staff are facing a big summer of change within the Chelsea squad, before they have even truly got their feet under the table.