Chelsea player will leave for Man U this summer after Blues Champions League failure says Merson

Chelsea risk losing key players like Cole Palmer now that they’ve effectively failed to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

Paul Merson’s column for Sky Sports this week is out, and it makes bleak reading for Chelsea fans.

He claims that it’s very unlikely that Chelsea make it into Europe, and that it’s impossible they now make it into the Champions League. He claims that this means key players leaving.

Merson predicts Palmer exit with Blues crashing out of CL

“Do you think Cole Palmer will be at Chelsea playing in the Europa Conference League? I don’t think so. Manchester United will get into the Champions League, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was playing there next season.”

We wouldn’t be surprised either. Although given how Palmer has played in the last 18 months, it’s hard to see anyone paying us the vast sum it would require to get us to sell.

On Enzo Fernandez, Merson says “no one’s paying £100m for him,” and frankly we see Palmer in the same situation right now.

Plenty of teams will want the chance to get Palmer back to his best, but we’re not sure how much money they’ll be offering for a player who looks physically broken right now.

Liam Rosenior was asked about the rumours linking Alejandro Garnacho with an exit from Chelsea, this summer, and he dismissed them pretty much out of hand.

Ruud Gullit slammed Chelsea’s model and their pay structure in some recent quotes for the Daily Mail.