Only a club as relentlessly newsworthy as Chelsea could generate major headlines with something as innately mundane as a Europa Conference League squad announcement.
Yet that is exactly what happened on Thursday, when it was confirmed that Chelsea had decided to omit Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia from the 27–player list submitted to UEFA for the group stage of the competition, where they are pitted against Gent, Panathinaikos, FC Noah, Heidenheim, Astana and Shamrock Rovers from the start of October to mid-December.
Ben Chilwell and David Datro Fofana were also nowhere to be found on the list, but that was no surprise. Both have been told they are not in head coach Enzo Maresca’s plans and, having been unable to secure loans or permanent moves away from Stamford Bridge before the English transfer deadline last Friday, the two men are exploring their options in the countries where the transfer market remains open.
David Datro Fofana has barely featured for Chelsea (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The message coming out of Stamford Bridge was that Palmer, Fofana and Lavia were omitted because of two words that are very familiar to followers of US sports: load management.
Chelsea are planning how best to navigate a 2024-25 season that requires them to compete across five competitions and could stretch well into July, thanks to their scheduled participation in FIFA’s inaugural expanded Club World Cup in the United States. They could play between 75 and 80 games if things go well on the pitch, placing huge demands on their key players.
Fofana missed all of 2023-24 as he made a lengthy recovery from an ACL tear, while Lavia played just 33 minutes of his debut Chelsea season in the Premier League due to a series of injuries of his own. Palmer, in contrast, was ever-present, emerging as a genuine superstar at Stamford Bridge before going all the way to the Euro 2024 final with England, but that spectacular progress came at the cost of a shortened summer break and pre-season.
There are legitimate reasons for Chelsea to be very cautious with all three, and Thursday’s squad list simply confirms what most reasonable observers would have already assumed: that the Europa Conference League, UEFA’s relatively new third-tier European competition, is not high on the club’s list of sporting priorities.
It is worth noting that some high-profile omissions from Chelsea’s submitted list were inevitable, due both to the sheer number of senior players at Maresca’s disposal and to UEFA’s squad registration rules. Here is a brief summary of their key requirements:
- Clubs can register up to 25 players on their A list and an unlimited number on their B list (more to come on that)
- On the A list, a minimum of eight players must be “locally trained”, either by the club or in the same national association, for three full seasons between the ages of 15 and 21
- Of the eight “locally trained” players, no more than four can be “association trained”; the others must be “club trained” (have been registered with the club for three full seasons between 15 and 21)
- If a club has fewer than eight “locally trained” players, the number of players they can submit on their A list is reduced accordingly
- In order to be eligible for the B list, a player must have been born on or after January 1, 2003 and have been eligible to play for their club for two uninterrupted years after their 15th birthday, or three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan to a club in the same national association of no more than a year
All of the above means Chelsea could only submit 17 players on their A list who are not “locally trained” by UEFA’s classification, and they did so without including Fofana. Following the summer departures of Conor Gallagher, Trevoh Chalobah, Armando Broja and Alfie Gilchrist, there are also fewer than four senior “club trained” players in Maresca’s first-team squad.
Club captain Reece James might be the biggest load management concern of all at Chelsea after a nightmare two seasons with injury, but as one of only two “club trained” players on the A list (the other being third-choice goalkeeper Lucas Bergstrom, with Levi Colwill still young enough to qualify for the B list) there was no benefit to be had from omitting him.
UEFA’s squad rules are designed partly to incentivise the inclusion of academy players, and it is possible that highly-regarded Cobham prospects Josh Acheampong, Tyrique George and Kiano Dyer will get opportunities to make their mark in this year’s Europa Conference League that may not have come their way had no restrictions been in place.
A full breakdown of Chelsea’s submitted squad list of the Europa Conference League group stage can be seen in the graphic below:
Chelsea cannot get into trouble with UEFA for choosing to leave Palmer, their best player, or anyone else out of their Europa Conference League squad. The governing body’s requirements only stipulate that the players who represent their clubs in UEFA competitions are registered in accordance with their rules.
Should they advance beyond the group stage, Chelsea will get an opportunity to make three changes to their Europa Conference League squad before the knockout games begin. If they decide they want to give themselves the best possible chance of lifting the trophy in Wroclow next May they can get Palmer, Fofana and Lavia onto the list in time for the business end of the competition.
That would, however, mean dropping as many as three players from the current squad list and having awkward conversations that would test Maresca’s man-management skills.
Chelsea will not have quite as difficult a time finalising their squad list for the Premier League, which must be submitted by September 14. This is because while their squad registration rules are similar to those of UEFA, they are less restrictive in a couple of significant ways.
Firstly, all eight of the required “home-grown” players in Premier League squads can have been registered at another club in England or Wales for three years before their 21st birthday, making the reduced number of senior Cobham graduates in Chelsea’s squad much less of an issue.
Enzo Maresca’s man-management skills could be tested by his large squad (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
One particularly unusual case is Jadon Sancho, who qualifies as “home-grown” in the Premier League squad but is not classified as “locally trained” by UEFA despite playing his entire youth career in England, having left Manchester City for Borussia Dortmund only two years after his 15th birthday and returning to England with Manchester United at the age of 21.
Secondly, players aged 21 and younger do not have to be included in the 25-man list to be eligible to play in the Premier League regardless of where they are from. This means that Malo Gusto, Renato Veiga, Cesare Casadei and Marc Guiu do not take up any of the 17 squad slots reserved for players who are not “home-grown”, freeing up space for older overseas players.
There is no reason to think Chelsea’s squad list for the 2024-25 Premier League season will make similar waves next week — but with this club, it would be foolish to rule it out entirely…
(Top photos: Cole Palmer and Wesley Fofana; Getty Images)
