Romelu Lukaku
Arguably of the five players mentioned Romelu Lukaku is the one most likely to still have a possible future at Stamford Bridge though this summer will prove a crucial one for the powerful Belgian forward.
Having been brought in from Anderlecht for a huge fee, the deal could run up to £17m, Lukaku was afforded a decent opportunity to prove himself under Andre Villas-Boas, the former Blues boss handed the teenager seven appearances before he was axed in March, Roberto Di Matteo gave the forward a grand total of two appearances once he took over.
Lukaku was then sent out on loan to join former Blues hero Steve Clarke at West Brom and has proven to be a massive success, scoring 13 Premier League goals thus far this season, incidentally a tally higher than anyone in Chelsea’s first team set-up.
This run of form could lead to a welcoming back to the Chelsea fold next season but it may not.
Even with Fernando Torres struggling for form and with Daniel Sturridge being offloaded to Liverpool, all the talk of possible attacking additions revolved chiefly around Roman Abramovich opening his chequebook and chasing the likes of Edinson Cavani and Radamel Falcao.
So clearly if any big name striker is signed, and with Demba Ba to boot, a Lukaku return would almost certainly entail a spell warming the bench, perhaps even a lengthy spell doing so. No wonder the in-form striker has already started to talk up the possibility of a second spell at the Baggies.
The long and short of it is that Chelsea have a massive squad and one that is not compatible with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules and as such the chances these five have of making an impact at Stamford Bridge are fairly minimal because Abramovich has to greatly reduce his playing staff and those who had previously not had a look in may well be the first to be set free and in the case of these five it’s an exit that would surely be preferable to more time spent at a club that doesn’t appear to value them.