Shocking size of Chelsea senior squad, including EIGHT goalkeepers, laid bare

Chelsea’s senior squad has grown to 46 this summer – with an astonishing eight of them being goalkeepers.

Since the arrival of Clearlake Capital as new owners at Chelsea, the club have gone into hyperdrive nearly every transfer window.

In total, the Blues have purchased 35 players and spent around £1.2billion including nine-figure sums on Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo and hefty fees on Wesley Fofana, Mykhailo Mudryk and Marc Cucurella.

But of those 35 players signed, four of them have been goalkeepers – Robert Sanchez, Dorde Petrovic, Gabriel Slonina and newest addition Filip Jorgensen.

The quartet have cost Chelsea around £72m – joining the other four goalkeepers in the senior squad Kepa Arrizabalaga, Lucas Bergstrom, Marcus Bettinelli and Eddie Beach.

Kepa, who was bought in 2018 under the previous regime of Roman Abramovich’s, cost as much as all four – £72m from Athletic Bilbao.

And despite their efforts, Chelsea are struggling to offload the Spaniard, who still has two years left on his contract.

It gives Enzo Maresca a major problem on who his No. 1 choice will be going into the new season while Sanchez has been given the gloves in pre-season.

Former boss Mauricio Pochettino had dropped the Spaniard midway through the campaign last year to give Petrovic a chance between the sticks.

But the Serbian has been relegated down the pecking order, possibly as low as third after the arrival of Jorgensen from Villarreal this summer.

And Chelsea are not just bloated in the goalkeeping department and still have more than enough players to fill four starting XIs.

Some players have been linked with moves away, including Conor Gallagher, who talkSPORT understands has been told to leave, and Trevoh Chalobah, who was left at home for Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the United States.

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Romelu Lukaku is high on Napoli’s wish list while there are rumours Ben Chilwell could be allowed to leave, as well as Armando Broja.

But even if all five players leave the club, they will still have 41 players on their books with seven joining this summer.

As well as Jorgensen in goal, Chelsea have signed Renato Veiga, Marc Guiu, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Caleb Wiley, Tosin Adarabioyo and Omari Kellyman.

Speaking about Gallagher, Maresca was guarded but did concede that the club and the player are in conversations.

“At the moment, there is not any update on that,” Maresca said.

“The only thing I can say is that he was in contact with the club to find a solution. I don’t think it’s something new.

“In football, every summer, different clubs have some problems with some players, and then at the end, they find a solution and everyone is happy. Hopefully the same can happen in this situation.”

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