EIGHT Chelsea players on Barcelona's transfer shortlist

Stuart Telford

• 22 Apr 2023 06:57 CDT
• 3 min read

The path between Chelsea and Barcelona is well-trodden, and Barca have reportedly shortlisted eight Blues players with a fire sale expected at Stamford Bridge next summer.

Barcelona signed Andreas Christensen and Marcos Alonso on free transfers from Chelsea at the start of this season, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang went the other way in a €12 million deal.

Significant changes are expected at both clubs this summer - if for radically different reasons.

READ: EXCLUSIVE: Chelsea put ENTIRE squad up for sale

Chelsea owner Todd Boehly is understood to have made the entire first-team squad available for transfer with the return on his €600m plus investment on new players thus far returning three different managers and an 11th-place in the Premier League.

Barcelona have been told to reduce their debt by €200m if they want to take part in La Liga next season, meanwhile, and player sales - alongside the activation of more "financial levers" will be their most effective way to raise capital as they try to re-sign Lionel Messi from PSG.

And the fact that Barca are, for now, restricted to the free transfer market, makes some of the players on Sports' list more likely to make the move than others.

READ: Aubameyang offered Chelsea escape by Barcelona - but there's a catch!

Who are the eight players?

According to the Spanish daily, Barca have shortlisted each of: Aubameyang, Romelu Lukaku, Christian Pulisic, Hakim Ziyech, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, N'Golo Kante and Cesar Azpilicueta.

Of those eight, Kante and Loftus-Cheek are out of contract at the end of the season, and the former in particular could help compensate for Sergio Busquets' absence, should he leave.

Barca are also optimistic of bringing Aubameyang back to the club on a free with all parties keen to bring his disappointing spell in West London to a speedy conclusion.

Of the rest, Puisic, Kovacic and Azpilicueta could be acquired for knock-down prices with only another year to run on their contracts, although Azpilucueta turned down the chance to follow Christensen and Alonso to Camp Nou last summer.

Lukaku and Ziyech both have longer-term deals with Chelsea, and Barca's only hope of acquiring them would be via loans.