Alejandro Garnacho was absent as Chelsea began pre-season training on Thursday, the 21-year-old winger frozen out at Cobham while his club actively seeks a permanent buyer. The £40m signing from Manchester United scored just one Premier League goal in 24 matches last season and has been told he is not guaranteed a regular starting place, with both parties agreeing he should depart. Chelsea value him at around £43m and will only entertain permanent offers, despite loan interest from Roma. Clubs in the Premier League, Italy and Saudi Arabia have expressed interest, and talks are advancing with several parties. Manchester United are due 10% of any sale.
Any exit is part of a reshaping under new manager Xabi Alonso, who has already spent £87m on full-back Marco Palestra from Atalanta and winger Geovany Quenda from Sporting, while selling left-back Marc Cucuyo to Real Madrid for £52m and winger Tyrique George to Everton for up to £24m. The Blues finished 10th in the Premier League last season and are targeting a centre-back, with Crystal Palace’s Maxence Lacroix among their targets, while Rayo Vallecano left-back Pep Chavarria is in talks to move to west London. Trevoh Chalobah’s entourage is exploring moves to Inter Milan and Como.
“Chelsea exile Garnacho from pre-season as they seek to sell; City sign Leicester wonderkid Monga for £12.5m.”
Meanwhile, Manchester City have beaten Arsenal to the £12.5m signing of 17-year-old winger Jeremy Monga from Leicester City. Monga, who turned 17 on Friday, is known to City head coach Enzo Maresca from his promotion-winning season at Leicester in 2023-24. Born in Coventry, he joined Leicester aged eight and has represented England at various age groups up to the under-19s. In April 2025, aged 15 and 271 days, he became the second-youngest player to make his Premier League debut. Last August, aged 16 and 34 days, he became the youngest player to start a game for Leicester and three days later became the Championship’s youngest goalscorer, breaking a record set by Jude Bellingham. Leicester were relegated from the Championship to League One at the end of last season.
“When I became aware that Manchester City were interested, I knew instantly this was the right choice for me,” Monga told his new club’s website. “For any young footballer, to become part of this amazing club is a dream come true. This has been the best club in England over the past 10 years. And it has also handed opportunities to players from the academy like Phil Foden and Nico O’Reilly which shows that the pathway is there. It is a privilege to be here and I’m delighted to have joined.”