Cole Palmer has been left out of Chelsea’s Europa Conference League squad in a surprise decision by the club as they seek to manage a heavy workload this season.
Chelsea will play in five club competitions this season, with the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup and Conference League preceding the newly expanded Club World Cup, which begins in June next year and lasts a month. The Blues qualify because they won the 2021 Champions League.
With that in mind, as well as international fixtures in the Nations League and qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca and his staff have decided to omit Palmer – who pulled out of England’s squad this week with injury – from the group stage squad.
Romeo Lavia and Wesley Fofana have also been excluded after injury-troubled campaigns last season. Chelsea Reece James was named in the squad despite currently being sidelined with a hamstring injury, but fellow England full-back Ben Chilwell was not included.
The club named only 24 players despite being able to list 25, because the recent sales of homegrown players have left them short of the number of club-trained options which Uefa requires.
Meanwhile, Tottenham have left Djed Spence and Sergio Reguilon out of their squad for the Europa League group stage. Ange Postecoglou’s team had to submit a maximum 25-man squad to Uefa by Wednesday night, but were only able to list 23 players for the same reason.
It means Spence, who has been reintegrated back into the first team this summer after loan spells at Leeds and Genoa last season, will miss out on European football during the first half of the campaign.
The absence of Reguilon is no surprise given the Spanish defender is deemed surplus to requirements and could still leave, with the Turkish transfer window open.
Spurs have allowed Alfie Devine to join Westerlo of the Belgian Pro League on a season-long loan. Devine attracted plenty of interest this summer after spells with Port Vale and Plymouth last season, but no suitable domestic loan could be found before Friday’s 11pm transfer deadline in England.
Westerlo already have 17-year-old centre-back Luka Vuskovic, who will officially join Spurs in 2025, in their ranks and he will now have Devine for company after the Antwerp-based club moved for the midfielder before the Belgian transfer window shuts on Friday.
This will be the third loan of Devine’s fledgling career after he first signed for Tottenham in July 2020 and became the club’s youngest scorer six months later with an FA Cup goal on his debut at Marine. Devine has a contract with Spurs until the summer of 2027 and has made 44 professional appearances.