Chelsea AXE one of Enzo, Mudryk, Felix and Badiashile

Carlo Garganese

• 1 Feb 2023 08:55 GMT
• 3 min read

Chelsea face the embarrassing prospect of having to axe at least one of their four big-money January signings from their Champions League squad.

The Blues set a new world record for money spent in a transfer window as they splashed out a barely believable €329.5 million on eight new players.

However, due to UEFA rules, Chelsea can only add three new players to their Champions League squad for the knockout stages.

READ MORE: January 2022-23 done deals

That means at least four of their new signings (Malo Gusto is remaining at Lyon on loan for the rest of the season) cannot be registered for the Champions League.

It also means that one of their four high-profile signings - Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Joao Felix and Benoit Badiashile - will be left out.

Chelsea spent a British record on Deadline Day to sign Fernandez from Benfica for €121m, having earlier in the window signed Mudryk for €100m from Shakhtar Donetsk. AS Monaco defender Benoit Badiashile joined for €37, while Joao Felix arrived on an expensive loan.

Chelsea January signings

One of these will not make the cut.

The Blues also brought in Ivory Coast wonderkid David Datro Fofana for €12m from Molde to mark their first signing of the window.

Brazilian wonderkid Andrey Santos also came through the door at Cobham, with a reported fixed fee of €12.5m plus add-ons being paid for Vasco da Gama midfielder.

Chelsea also spent €34m on PSV attacker Noni Madueke.

It seems inevitable none of these three youngsters will be in Chelsea’s Champions League List A squad.