Chelsea desperate to flog Batshuayi, Bakayoko and Emerson in £160m clear-out to fund Havertz and Chilwell transfers

Posted Monday, June 15, 2020 by Thesun.co.uk

CHELSEA are looking to offload £160million-worth of big-name flops to help fund Frank Lampard’s first spending spree.

The Blues have agreed a £54million fee for Leipzig striker Timo Werner and have already sealed a £37million deal for Ajax winger Hakim Ziyech.

Now Lampard has the green light to move for Leverkusen attacking star Kai Havertz and Leicester full-back Ben Chilwell.

Those deals would push the club’s summer outlay close to £250million but the cost could be partially offset by a major Stamford Bridge clear-out.

Tiemoue Bakayoko, Emerson Palmieri, Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater, Michy Batshuayi and Victor Moses have all been made aware that they do not feature in Lampard’s future plans.

But the club will have to accept a major hit on all six of the surplus stars just to get them off the wage bill.

Top of Lampard’s hit-list is French international midfielder Bakayoko, who cost Chelsea £40million when they signed him from Monaco three years ago but has spent the last two seasons out on loan.

He is currently back at former club Monaco, who have a £35million buy-back clause but are not going to take up the option to sign him on a permanent basis.

That could open the door for AC Milan, who had Bakayoko on loan at the San Siro last season but could not afford to keep him at the time.

But now they believe that Chelsea are ready to slash their asking price for a player who still has two years of a £110,000-a-week contract to run.

And the Italians have been encouraged by suggestions that Bakayoko does not want to remain in England in spite of interest from West Ham.

Italian international Emerson is another who is likely to be heading for the exit door this summer.

Inter Milan boss Antonio Conte, who signed Emerson from Roma for £17.5million two years ago, is eager to bring the player back to Serie A.

But he faces opposition from fellow former Blues boss Maurizio Sarri, who is now in charge of Italian Champions Juventus.

Now Chelsea hope they can start a bidding war for the left-back who has fallen down the pecking order in recent months.

But they will find it difficult to generate much of an auction for right-back Zappacosta, who is currently recovering from a serious cruciate injury sustained in October while on loan at Roma.

Chelsea paid £25million to sign him from Torino in 2017 but they will do well to get even half of that fee back for a player who only has a year left on his contract.

And they face an even bigger loss on midfielder Danny Drinkwater, who joined on the same day as Zappacosta in a £35million move from Leicester.

The former England international has not played for the club for two years and has barely featured during loan spells at Burnley and Aston Villa this season.

Drinkwater, 30, still has two years left on his Chelsea contract but knows he has no future at Stamford Bridge and hopes to be allowed to leave for a nominal fee.

Belgian international Batshuayi also appears to be on his way out after being left out of last week’s behind closed doors friendly against Reading.

The £33million striker is now behind Werner, Tammy Abraham and Olivier Giroud in the Chelsea queue and with only one year left on his contract will be offered up for sale this summer.

Moses, who is currently on loan at Inter Milan, is also up for grabs. The Italians have an option to sign the 29-year-old wing-back for £10million but are not prepared to pay that during the coronavirus recession.

They could complete a deal for half of that price and Chelsea are unlikely to stand in the way of his departure.