Chelsea could offload 12 players including Ben Chilwell and Djordje Petrovic as Enzo Maresca set to oversee squad clear out: Reports

Chelsea are planning to offload quite a few members of their playing staff, with a major exit coming this summer. According to Mirror (via GOAL), the Stamford Bridge hierarchy has given Enzo Maresca the chance to offload 12 players, including Ben Chilwell and Djordje Petrovic.

An important exit for the club will be Romelu Lukaku, who has not played for Chelsea for two seasons, following his mega-money return to the Bridge. So far, they have tried and failed to sell him and remove the burden of his wages from their books, but they will be hoping for his permanent exit this summer.

Kepa Arrizabalaga has also returned from a loan spell at Real Madrid, where he spent the latter half of the season on the bench. Having failed to maintain strong form, playing time will be hard to find for the goalkeeper at the Bridge. A number of players who also went on loan include Armando Broja, David Datro Fofana, and Cesare Casadei, and they are all on the list to be axed.

Some first-team players could also be on their way out, despite playing regularly at Stamford Bridge. These include players like Conor Gallagher, Trevor Chalobah, Ben Chilwell, and Djordje Petrovic.

While Malang Sarr has already left the club, others like Alfie Gilchrist, Lesley Ugochukwu, and Andrey Santos will likely leave on loan to find more game time.

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Enzo Maresca reacts as Chelsea lose 4-1 to Celtic during pre-season

While the club work towards a successful summer window in the transfer market, the results on the pitch will be cause for concern. It was a rather embarrassing performance for Chelsea at the Notre Dame Stadium in the USA, where they are currently on tour.

The Blues lost 4-1 to a Celtic side (July 27) that was clearly better in every regard. Celtic scored twice in the first half, with Chelsea's defense simply unable to keep their opponents out of the game. Although the Blues attacked regularly, goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel made a significant difference, working hard to ensure they couldn't get past him.

In the second half, two more goals for Celtic sealed the deal, while Chelsea managed to salvage some pride with a penalty converted by Christopher Nkunku.

Speaking to the press after the game, Enzo Maresca evaluated the performance, saying:

"As we said, the result is always important. For us, we need to analyze the game in general. I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first-half and second-half."

"And off the ball, for sure, we can improve things and you can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short, a little bit longer. It's part of the process."

Maresca will be hoping the Blues can improve their form heading into his debut season as Chlesea manager.