Paul Merson insists Chelsea ‘will sell’ two stars amid £100m Man Utd transfer claim

Paul Merson says Chelsea “will sell” Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson as that’s the “whole idea” behind their current transfer model.

The Blues have spent over £1billion since a Todd Boehly-led consortium bought the Premier League club in May 2022 with Chelsea going on a spending spree ever since.

Enzo Maresca admitted during the summer that Chelsea had a ‘bomb squad’ of players training separately from his first-team squad with Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell one of the “15-20” players doing their work elsewhere.

Sterling was eventually allowed to leave to Arsenal on a loan deal until the end of the season, while others also managed to leave before the transfer deadline.

A reported rift between co-owners Boehly and Behdad Eghbali is the latest off-field problem that Maresca is dealing with, and now Merson reckons he could lose some of his best players in the future for the right price.

Chelsea have managed to get most of their new recruits on very long contracts and Merson reckons Palmer, Jackson and others will be sold before the end of their deals as that’s the “plan”.

Merson said on Sky Sports : “They just need to worry about results on the pitch but I still don’t know the plan. I still don’t know the plan.

“Nicolas Jackson is there until 2033. If Jackson scores 25 goals next season, they will sell him. That’s the whole idea.

“If Cole Palmer becomes unbelievable and keeps on doing what he is doing, then he will be a £100m player. They will sell him for £100m.

“That’s how it works, they don’t want all these players to run their contracts out.”

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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has suggested that Man Utd might look to bid for Chelsea attacker Palmer in 12 months’ time as he’s a big Red Devils fan.

“Something’s just come to me here,” Carragher said on The Overlap .

“If Chelsea have another poor season, we were talking earlier about Manchester United having a real problem on that right wing.

“He [Palmer] is a big Man United fan isn’t he? Would that not be something that United should visit maybe in 12 months if it doesn’t go well?

“You know what, I think that could happen. Yeah, Cole Palmer to Man United.”

Palmer struggled to be as effective in Chelsea’s 1-0 victory over Bournemouth over the weekend with the Blues man fouled four times against the Cherries.

But Maresca insists that it’s something the England international will have to deal with now he’s one of the Premier League’s standout players.

The Chelsea boss told reporters: “These kind of players are probably going to have these things. Cook was marking him for 95 minutes man-to-man before we put him wide. It is not easy for Cole or any player. You need to find a different solution.”