Chelsea announce their squad for the preseason tour of Asia

Chelsea have released their squad to travel to Asia, so fans that will be attending or watching on television can know who they will be watching. The full squad is as follows:

Petr Cech, Mark Schwarzer, Jamal Blackman, Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry, Gary Cahill, Tomas Kalas, Ashley Cole, Ryan Bertrand, Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Josh McEachran, Marco van Ginkel, Ramires, Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Victor Moses, Andre Schurrle, Demba Ba, Romelu Lukaku, Sam Walker, Nathaniel Chalobah, Lucas Piazon, Islam Feruz

With the U21 side currently in the United States and the Confederations Cup participants being given some additional time off, there really aren't too many notable omissions. There were only three that really caught my eye, with Oriol Romeu, Nathan Ake, and Wallace not included in the traveling team.

Romeu is all but confirmed to be heading to Valencia at this point, with only the official announcement of his loan yet to come. There have also been reports that Ake is heading to Vitesse, and with the Dutch club having some Europa League qualifiers coming in the next several weeks, it would make sense to have him join up with his loan club as soon as possible.

Wallace has been training with the first team this week, and I was a bit surprised he wasn't included for this particular trip. I had a feeling he'd eventually head out on loan for the 2013/14 season, but his not being included in either the US or Asia tours would seem to hint that the move is coming sooner rather than later.

All told, this should be an interesting squad to watch, as there is a nice blend of youth and experience making the trip. While pre-season friendlies don't really mean anything, they're still more fun to watch than the Gold Cup.