Three more Chelsea shirt numbers for the 2022/23 Premier League have been revealed as Deadline Day approaches for the summer transfer window, however it appears there could be an error.
Thomas Tuchel’s side have made six signings so far and Wesley Fofana’s arrival is imminent after he flew to the United States to undergo his medical ahead of his £70 million plus add-ons transfer from Leicester City.
Many have exited Chelsea this summer, most recently Ross Barkley who departed by mutual consent, one year prior to his contract expiring at Stamford Bridge.
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With two days left of the transfer window, futures are still to be confirmed and resolved.
Ethan Ampadu is heading to Italy, Callum Hudson-Odoi is Bayer Leverkusen bound. But there are several players whose roles in Tuchel’s plans remain unclear.
One is Gilmour’s. He wasn’t given a shirt number for this season and has been with the Development Squad for the large part of pre-season having spent some time with the first-team on their US tour.
The 21-year-old has been linked with a whole host of clubs this summer, including Everton and Brighton, but his future remains unclear ahead of Thursday’s 11pm (UK) deadline.
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Tuchel’s recent comments about his midfield amid injuries to Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante suggest he is not part of the plans.
The Chelsea head coach said: "It is (a headache the midfield area), and it's normally the area I would love to have a headache about who plays and who is on the bench.
"This is normally the area where I thought we would have five players that could all play for us and have Carney (Chukwuemeka) on top as an option as a young player.
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"The headache before the season was whether we had too many players there, but it comes to the fifth game, and maybe we only have two left with experience in this position and Kova from the bench because he is not ready to play full matches at Premier League level as he only had a week after training after his injury.
"It's a strange situation and a situation we don't like. I don't know why we are in this situation, actually. It's like this, and we will have something to think about (over the team selection), or maybe not because it's so obvious who we have left."
But ahead of their Premier League clash against Southampton, Kenedy, Gilmour and Batshuayi have all been assigned shirt numbers on the Premier League’s website.
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Kenedy - 23
Billy Gilmour - 35
Michy Batshuayi - 30
However, Kenedy's assigned number is the same as Conor Gallagher's which suggests there could be an error. As is Batshuayi's - Carney Chukwuemeka is the club's current no.30. On the official Chelsea website, none of the trio have been given numbers.
Topics: Billy Gilmour, Kenedy, Michy Batshuayi, Premier League, Chelsea
Matthew Debono