Mauricio Pochettino opens up on Trevoh Chalobah role at Chelsea amid uncertainty over future

Mauricio Pochettino is adamant Trevoh Chalobah still has a role to play at Chelsea this season amid major uncertainty over his future with the club. Earlier in the week, it was reported by football.london – and elsewhere – that Chalobah has been deemed surplus to requirements.

football.london understands the Blues are still planning on selling the 24-year-old defender in the January transfer window after a late move to Bayern Munich in the summer collapsed. Bayern wanted to sign Chalobah, who has been at Chelsea since the age of nine, late on in the window on a loan deal while the Blues wanted a permanent move – valuing the Cobham graduate at £50million.

However, Bayern wanted a loan move meaning a deal collapsed for Chalobah. Nottingham Forest then came in with a late offer for Chalobah when the German deadline passing, and Chelsea accepted. Chalobah, however, decided to stick around at Chelsea.

Pochettino has insisted the defender still has a role to play at Stamford Bridge this season, despite being close to sealing an exit. «What I can tell you is there is two parts,» Pochettino explained to reporters on Friday afternoon.

«If an offer appears, it is because another part of the club accepted it to move or they were trying to find a solution or the player wanted to leave. You cannot only blame the club, if an offer appears for Jesus [Perez, my assistant], it is because Jesus was open to receiving the offer, no? Come on, we need to also be clever. Did you receive an offer, Jesus [laughs]?!

»No, but it is always easy to blame the club and blame the club. In the same way, maybe the player was thinking in pre-season or before the season to move in one direction. If after that didn’t happen, then I am fair with the player. I