Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Roméo Lavia have not even been included on the roster for Chelsea’s squad in what is Europe’s third most important cup competition as Maresca looks to spread minutes among fringe players. All three are first-choice in the Premier League.
Nkunku joined Chelsea for £52 million from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2023 and was regarded as one of the most exciting signings of the new ownership, with transfers overseen at that time by co-owner Todd Boehly.
The forward was hampered by a series of injuries in his first season at Stamford Bridge including knee and hamstring problems, but has been fully fit for some time.
Did not join ‘to sit on the bench’
However, he is clearly behind Nicolas Jackson in the pecking order with Maresca regarding the pair as rivals for the centre-forward position in his 4-2-3-1 formation. He has said he is wary of playing them both together but one source stated that Nkunku had not joined Chelsea “to sit on the bench”.
Chelsea have an array of attacking talent including Palmer, Jackson, Noni Madueke, Mykhailo Mudryk, João Félix, Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto, who scored his first league goal for the club to salvage a draw against Arsenal.
Ahead of last week’s European tie against Armenian club Noah – with Nkunku scoring twice in an 8-0 rout – Maresca admitted that he felt sympathy towards the player. “Christo, every time he plays, he scores, and he does well,” Maresca said.
“Also, he was probably our best player in pre-season, no doubt. He was playing then as an attacking midfielder and now we are using him as a nine, which we all know isn’t his position – he’s more a second striker or between the lines.”
It is understood that Chelsea would only be willing to listen to offers for Nkunku, whose contract has four years left to run, if they can recoup their transfer fee in full.
If Nkunku is put up for sale there are likely to be several suitors for him. United’s interest came under Erik ten Hag and it remains to be seen whether it will be revived under their new head coach Ruben Amorim.
