Jose Mourinho set to raid Chelsea for Trevoh Chalobah

Jacque Talbot

Updated: 16 Sept 2022 13:09 BST
3 min read

Jose Mourinho, Roma, 2021/22 — © ProShots

Trevoh Chalobah is likely to go out on loan in the January transfer window in a bid to earn game-time, Football Transfers understands.

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The Chelsea defender will be given an opportunity to impress under new head coach Graham Potter, who has held one-on-ones with every first-team squad member - but the general feeling is the youngster will be heading out temporarily.

FootballTransfers is told there was vast interest for the player during the summer window, including from Aston Villa, but that has since died down.

But there remain intermediaries in Serie A looking to broker a deal for Chalobah, with Jose Mourinho's Roma - who already have English players Chris Smalling and even his former team-mate Tammy Abraham - being the front-runners at this point.

Inter Milan made inquiries over the summer, but they opted for Francesco Acerbi to fill in on loan from Lazio - while AC Milan were keen, too, but they ended up bringing in Malick Thiaw from newly promoted Schalke 04.

Chalobah, who is now 23, is after game-time and a move to Italy is the most probable outcome for him in January unless he is given a fair number of minutes under Potter - something deemed unlikely.

© ProShots - The youngster is in search of game-time

However, the Blues are so far adamant not to let the player leave on a permanent deal, and will only sanction loan moves at this point.

Chalobah touched on his future earlier this week in an interview with TalkSport, saying that he wanted to prove himself at Chelsea but ultimately it’s first-team football that he is after.

"I feel that when the chance comes, it comes," he said. "I will always be patient because playing for a club like this is not easy, there is always going to be competition.

"That is the best thing for all the players and for me, training with the best players day in, day out. I try not to focus on the outside noise and focus what I'm doing and what I want to do this season. That is to get myself into the team and play a lot of games this season."

Chalobah briefly impressed at the start of the 2021/22 season under Thomas Tuchel but steadily fell out of the first-team picture since then. In total, he has played 31 times for the Blues.