Chelsea players out of contract - 2022/23

Todd Boehly sauntered into the Premier League, top hat tilted to one side and dollar bills spilling out of his pocket, with the reputation as a 'disruptor'.

Chelsea's free-spending new ownership were able to circumvent Financial Fair Play regulations by doling out unusually long contracts and dividing the transfer fee across the length of a player's deal via the accounting process of amortisation. This loophole exploitation was deemed so disturbing that UEFA are considering limiting contracts to five years.

While half of Chelsea's exceedingly large squad will be at the club until hell freezes over, there are some that have not been swept up in the flood of lengthy deals.

Chelsea players out of contract - 2022/23

Joao Felix

Mauricio Pochettino's first act as Chelsea manager was to hurriedly usher Joao Felix back to Atletico Madrid.

"It's the news we had yesterday, that the new coach doesn't count on him for Chelsea," Atletico's president Enrique Cerezo recently revealed. "We don't have anything planned yet, Joao is an Atletico player now."

Felix threatened to be the star arrival of the scattergun transfer strategy at Chelsea as he excelled on his debut against Fulham - for 57 minutes at least. The red card that followed a rash tackle on Kenny Tete proved to be the first obstacle in an underwhelming six-month loan spell.

Given the success which Atletico enjoyed in Felix's absence - no La Liga team has collected more points since his departure - the elfin forward may not be welcomed back so warmly.

N'Golo Kante

Between mid-August and April, Kante was only able to muster four Chelsea appearances - each one came under a different manager. It remains to be seen whether Pochettino will ever call upon the 32-year-old.

Frank Lampard managed to squeeze as many as five starts out of Kante this season but wasted his combative qualities by awkwardly shunting the World Cup winner into an advanced role. However, that brief and unsuccessful experimentation was cut short by yet another injury.

Kante has been sidelined with various fitness concerns for 321 days since starring for Chelsea in the 2021 Champions League final (per Transfermarkt). The Frenchman has expressed a desire to stay in west London despite interest from Barcelona but any future employer will be at the mercy of his unreliable availability.

Denis Zakaria

Zakaria was signed on loan from Juventus while Thomas Tuchel was manager last summer but didn't make his Chelsea debut until November, long after the German's departure. With rumours emerging of his stay getting cut short as soon as January, Zakaria has done well to make it to May but is unlikely to still be in blue next season.

Chelsea have an option to buy baked into the loan deal with Juventus but Pochettino will hardly be short of bodies. The club had to expand the size of the dressing room after some players were forced to change in the hallway following the January influx.

On this edition of Son of Chelsea, part of the 90min podcast network, Daniel Childs reacts to Mauricio Pochettino's appointment as Chelsea head coach and reviews Sunday's draw with Newcastle. If you can't see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!