In an unexpected move, Chelsea decided not to include Cole Palmer and Ben Chilwell in their Europa Conference League squad. Both players are among four senior players left out.
Palmer, Chilwell, Wesley Fofana, and Romeo Lavia are not included in Chelsea’s squad that will play against Shamrock Rovers, Gent, Panathinaikos, Noah, Heidenheim, and Astana in the league phase.
In order to manage their workload, England’s midfielder Romeo Lavia, defender Wesley Fofana, and forward Palmer have been purposefully left out. This season, Chelsea may participate in 80 games across five competitions. The Blues will participate in five club competitions: the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup, and Conference League, which will take place before the newly expanded Club World Cup, which takes place in June of the following year and lasts for one month. Chelsea’s 2021 Champions League victory earned them qualification.
Cole Palmer, who was forced out of England’s squad this week due to injury, was left off of the group stage squad by Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca and his staff in consideration of that, as well as international matches in the Nations League and qualifying for the World Cup in 2026.
With Lavia and Fofana recovering from long-term injuries, it was decided to rest star player Cole Palmer during the league stage of Europe’s third division competition. When squads can be resubmitted on February 6, Chelsea can re-register the three players for the knockout stages.
Another clue that the vice captain from the previous season won’t play senior football if he can’t get a transfer to Turkey comes from left-back Ben Chilwell’s exclusion from Chelsea’s Conference League squad. Although Chilwell could still be loaned out by Chelsea, the Turkish transfer window is still open, and no concrete offers have been made as yet. The England defender has received word from manager Enzo Maresca that he has no future at Chelsea, and several Premier League clubs have made offers for Chilwell this summer.
The club could have listed 25, but only named 24, as they did not have enough club-trained options to meet Uefa’s requirements due to recent sales of homegrown players. Chelsea has come under fire for keeping 42 senior players on the books at one point this summer, a practice known as player hoarding during the transfer window. There are now only about 36 players, some of whom are inexperienced academy players, after some were sold.
Chelsea lost their away match against Servette but won in the end on aggregate as they barely made it through the Conference League play-off round.
The next game for Chelsea is against Premier League side AFC Bournemouth on Saturday 14th September at Vitality Stadium in Kings Park, Boscombe.