Enzo Maresca has allowed Renato Veiga and Axel Disasi to leave on loan to other clubs for the rest of the season as his plans for his true Chelsea squad begin to take shape.
The Italian moved to Stamford Bridge from the King Power Stadium at the beginning of the season and with his came a myriad of transfers thanks to the club’s player scouting department.
At the end of the summer 2024 transfer window, the former Manchester City youth coach had over 40 first-team players on his roster, with the football community wondering how he intended to manage that many players in the 2024/25 season.
He has done a good job so far by clearly defining which team plays Premier League football, UEFA competition football and English domestic cup football. Some players overlap in all three competition categories, but in the end, it has worked for him.
Regardless of the successes he has found managing the team this way, Maresca has hinted at the size of the squad being a problem for him and his coaching staff. Many expected quite a few players to leave the club in the January and summer 2025 transfer window as a result.
Those expectations are now reality as Portuguese defender Veiga and French defender Disasi have both departed the club on loan this January.
Veiga has now joined Juventus for the rest of the season, six months after signing for Chelsea from FC Basel in Switzerland for £12 million on a seven-year deal, while Disasi, who joined in the summer of 2023 from Monaco for £38.8 million on a six-year deal – a full season before Maresca joined the club – is expected to be announced as an Aston Villa player in the coming days.
Juventus paid Chelsea a loan fee of £4 million and cover all of Veiga’s wages for the rest of the season while Villa and Chelsea are still ironing out the kinks of Disasi’s wages and the loan fee.
Disasi became a target for Villa because of the Birmingham club’s need for defensive reinforcements after losing Diego Carlos to Fenerbahçe on a permanent transfer and Tyrone Mings to injury days after. Disasi, who was on the chopping block anyway, chose the Unai Emery-led team ahead of Wolverhampton Wanderers and some clubs in Italy.
Veiga, meanwhile, is happy to have joined Juventus and has touted his versatility by stating that “…can play wherever the coach decides…” in his first interview with the club as a way to curry favour from Thiago Motta to achieve his aim of playing more football.
More departures are still expected from Chelsea before the end of the transfer window, but no additions are expected.
