‘Chelsea’s Chukwuemeka deal difficult despite Dortmund u-turn’
Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund may find it hard to reach an agreement over another deal for Carney Chukwuemeka due to differing views about the structure of the move from each club.
Attacking midfielder Chukwuemeka joined Chelsea from Aston Villa in 2022, signing a six-year contract, but he has struggled to make his mark at Stamford Bridge in the years since due to the Blues’ constant turnover of players.
He did not play at all in the Premier League in the first half of last season, and Football Insider revealed in January that Chukwuemeka had rejected offers from Everton and West Ham before he soon joined Dortmund on loan.
The 21-year-old played 13 times and scored once for the German giants in the regular season, in what seemed to be a largely underwhelming loan spell, but he stayed on to compete in the Club World Cup and impressed in the USA.
Chelsea and Dortmund have already done business this summer after Jamie Gittens joined Enzo Maresca’s side, but a deal for Chukwuemeka to remain in Germany may be less straightforward following recent reports.
Chelsea want to sell Chukwuemeka while Dortmund prefer another loan deal
Chukwuemeka is set to return to Stamford Bridge soon after Dortmund were knocked out of the CWC by Real Madrid at the quarter-final stage on Saturday, 5 July.
The German giants’ sporting director, Sebastian Kehl, has recently revealed that they would like him to return to the club for a second time ahead of 2025/26, saying: “We will definitely have some more discussions in the next few days about his situation. I think it was a good move from Carney to join us. Now let’s see how we manage everything. It won’t be easy, but we will try to keep him because he’s a very good player.
“It’s always easier to loan a player than to buy one, especially within Carney’s [price] range, but let’s see. We are not that far advanced [in talks] at the moment, but I can tell you that we are pretty close to the player, and he loves Dortmund. Everything else will be decided between Chelsea and us. That won’t be tomorrow. That won’t be on Tuesday. I think it will take some more days.”
Despite his desire for the England youth international to return to Signal Iduna Park, The Athletic have reported that Chelsea are only interested in selling Chukwuemeka this summer, while Dortmund want to loan him again in a deal including an option to buy.
It remains to be seen what sort of conclusion this saga will come to, but the Blues are clearly unlikely to loan a player out who BBC Sport understand they value at about £40m, so this deal could well wage on until the latter stages of the transfer window.
Chelsea need to sell Chukwuemeka due to financial pressures
Football Insider verdict
Chukwuemeka is clearly an asset to Chelsea, but not one that looks set to force his way into their starting eleven anytime soon, and so it is no wonder that they want to sell him considering their current financial position.
| Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| 32 | 2 | 1 |
The Blues’ extravagant recent spending looks to have caught up with them in some regard, with the likes of Joao Pedro, Liam Delap and Gittens all already signed for big fees this summer.
Chelsea were recently fined €31million (£27m) by UEFA, after they breached their earnings and squad-cost rules (SCR), and so they have adjudged that the Stamford Bridge outfit will not be allowed to include new players in their European squad next season and in 2026-27, unless they can show they have “generated a cost saving with sale of players against acquisitions.”
That means they need a fire sale of cast-offs, but with Raheem Sterling, Joao Felix and Christopher Nkunku all short of suitors due to their hefty wage packets, they are selling starting winger Noni Madueke to Arsenal in a likely bid to balance the books.
Chukwuemeka is a young, promising player who could well attract attention from clubs willing to spend big to sign him this summer, and so while the Blues may rue letting him go in the future, selling him is clearly much more favourable than a loan right now.