Renato Veiga is joining Juventus on a loan deal for the rest of the season that does not include a buy option.
It is my opinion that I will be very surprised if he is now not sold in the summer anyway, but that’s for another article at a later date. We will wait and see.
The more pressing concern for me right now is who replaces him in our squad? We now have just one left back in Marc Cucurella. Ben Chilwell is expected to be sold, although I’ve still heard absolutely nothing on that and have no idea where he’s going to go with just 8 days remaining. Even still, they already froze him out and treated him like dirt, so his Chelsea career is over regardless.
So when Cucurella is burned out, injured, or we just need to rotate, who is playing left back?
In terms of what we have heard, there isn’t much. We do have a shortlist of new left backs that we like, but that was always expected to be something we would most likely look at in the summer. Will they now dip into that? I’m not so sure.
The whispers we have been hearing about is that the most likely scenario right now for the rest of the season will be to use Malo Gusto as the left back backup until the end of the season.
And that’s fine, IF Reece James also stays fit and healthy. Chelsea also do have Ishé Samuels-Smith rising up in the academy. He is an 18-year-old left back who does look very good, so they could promote him for the second half of the season. But I’d be surprised if they do this as the first backup choice. Maybe as second behind Gusto.
But with the amount of days left in the window now, and the fact they shockingly seem to be prioritising a new winger the most out of anything else, I can’t foresee a new left back coming in now. I’ll await to hear info from sources, but the most we are hearing right now is it will be Gusto as the Cucurella backup until the summer at least, then it will be re-assessed. We do have left backs we are looking at, but up until now there has been no enquiries or advancements. This could always change quick if needed.
I do still have a feeling we could still get Douglas Luiz though, with Veiga’s deal to Juventus going through. But let’s see, it’s just a feeling and obviously he is not a left back!
