Chelsea make most ruthless transfer decision of the season with club 'open to offers' for shock star

Chelsea are willing to sell a pair of midfielders including a summer signing if they get the right offers in the January transfer window.

The Blues headed into this weekend in second place in the Premier League and as its top scorers. They've found some overdue stability under new head coach Enzo Maresca but still have work to do behind the scenes to trim down a bloated squad and ensure their finances are in a state that will allow them to strengthen.

Consequently, the Chelsea hierarchy will need to be ruthlessly pragmatic when there's demand for fringe players – even the ones they spent big money to acquire just six months ago.

Maresca in particular will have a difficult decision to make when asked for his view on the possible sale of a surprise candidate for the Stamford Bridge exit. The door hasn't even stopped swinging from his arrival in July for a reported fee in the region of £30 million from Leicester City.

The Chelsea boss also moved from the King Power Stadium in the summer after leading the Foxes back into the Premier League at the first time of asking after relegation in 2022-23. One of the key players from his season in the Championship followed him to London within a month of his arrival but looks set to depart as soon as January.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca (Image credit: Getty)

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is up for sale according to a report in the Mirror and will surely attract interest from elsewhere in the Premier League.

Maresca has admitted that the highly rated 26-year-old has struggled to adapt to not having the same responsibility he had at Leicester. Dewsbury-Hall has started six times for Chelsea but never in the Premier League. His hour of league playing time has been spread across five appearances in the first 15 league fixtures of the season. His only Chelsea goal so far came against Genk in the Conference League.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall could be in line for a sensational return to Leicester (Image credit: Getty)

A return to Leicester has been mooted as new manager Ruud van Nistelrooy seeks to put his stamp on the promoted club and cement their place in the Premier League.

Former Aston Villa youngster Carney Chukwuemeka is also reportedly up for grabs in January after two years at Chelsea, with Scottish Premiership champions Celtic and Ipswich Town among the interested parties.