Chelsea: Do owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali have a plan for a supersized squad?

Chelsea are, to a certain extent, stockpiling players.

They have spent £1.5bn on young stars from around the world and built a first team that needs trimming.

There were between 22 and 28 senior players in Maresca’s squad during pre-season, and several will have to leave.

Sterling and Chilwell have been offered to clubs, Chalobah is widely known to be available for sale and talks are underway to send Romelu Lukaku and Chukwuemeka to Napoli.

The six players on loan abroad will all be filled by the end of the summer. It is likely that three players will join Strasbourg’s partner club in France, with others loaned out to English football.

The idea is to reduce the wage bill and sign younger players before they become stars, which would allow Chelsea to save money but hedge its bets on several youngsters in the hope that some will become superstars.

Long contracts allow Chelsea to keep their wage bill low, spread the cost of the transfer over a long period and when contract renewal negotiations arise it gives them increased leverage – as players could end up with take-it-or-leave-it offers, with the club able to extend negotiations over a longer period.

Chelsea say they have cut their wage bill by more than 50% under new ownership group Boehly and Eghbali.

It is difficult to verify this figure independently without the data being published, but of the contracts we are aware of, it appears that salaries are below market rate for many players.

Before midfielder Cole Palmer’s contract renewal, he was known to be earning less than £100,000 a week, England midfielder Moises Caicedo, the transfer record holder, is earning £150,000 a week, according to comments made by his agent last season, and Ukraine winger Mykhailo Mudryk is known to be earning £97,000 a week despite an initial cost of £62m.

If the prospects do not become stars, Chelsea believe there will be a market to sell them while they are on relatively low wages.