Chelsea have been left with an awkward selection headache ahead of the Champions League knockout stages as a result of their free-spending transfer policy over the course of the January window.
Enzo Fernandez became Chelsea’s club-record signing for a fee of around £107m on deadline day, with the Argentina maestro joining the likes of Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana, Mykhaylo Mudryk and Noni Madueke in moving to Stamford Bridge.
However, the club’s aggressive recruitment strategy has led to a significant dilemma for Graham Potter, who will be forced to leave some of his new signings out of his Champions League squad for the knockout stages.
It is said that only two of Fernandez, Mudryk, Badiashile and Joao Felix can be included before Chelsea will need to start removing some of their current players in order to make room for the others.
The rules are different for the Premier League, though, with Fofana, Santos, Mudryk and Badiashile able to feature domestically as a result of them not needing to be registered thanks to their status as under-21 squad members.
Felix, meanwhile, has already played in the Premier League, while there is also space for Fernandez to be included.