Chelsea’s summer clearout looks set to remain on track after veteran Spanish defender César Azpilicueta could be primed to endure the remainder of his career away from West London as reports link Serie A giants Inter Milan to setting their sights on the Blues captain.
The 33-year-old Spanish international has spent eleven seasons at Stamford Bridge while helping the club to multiple major honors along the way but could be jettisoned with just one year remaining amid financial concerns in the English capital.
Despite the well-documented spending habits of the club in the first year of new ownership under Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali, the Blues have shown no signs of slowing down this summer by adding talent under the command of new manager Mauricio Pochettino.
Previous concerns surrounding Chelsea’s inability to clear the decks of a swath of big contracts that could have ultimately been the cause of possible FFP sanctions, the Blues appear to be aided by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund-backed reinforcement of the Roshn Saudi League in their own efforts to bring in a number of star names to help bolster their domestic competition.
While Azpilicueta will not be one of those names, his departure is also deemed necessary if Chelsea is able to continue to reinforce the senior team at the Bridge, with his nearly £200k/week wage packet hopefully coming off their books.
The club has already secured depth on the right side of the defense when they acquired highly-touted French starlet Malo Gusto from Olympique Lyonnais, adding his name alongside Cobham academy product Reece James in the depth chart. As such, Azpilicueta, who was previously routinely linked with interest in Barcelona, looks likely to depart before his deal runs down.
