One of the non-homegrown players will leave, says Mourinho

With Didier Drogba coming back to Stamford Bridge, Chelsea have an interesting squad problem on their hands. As Steve pointed out on Friday, there are now too many non-homegrown players about, and we'll have to cut down on the squad size to fit into Premier League regulations (to say nothing of the more-restrictive Champions League ones). In his lengthy interview with the Mirror yesterday, Mourinho confirmed that the club is aware of this problem -- and that one of the non home-grown players will have to go.

Although the Mirror and Liam Corliss suggest that the most likely casualty is Petr Cech, I'm not entirely sure why that would be true. First of all, we have no idea who'll win the pre-season duel between Cech and young prodigy Thibaut Courtois, secondly Mourinho seems more than happy to have both around. Spinning off Cech would not be a particularly helpful move, especially considering that he won't command the sort of money that can drastically alter the club's buying power this window.

One obvious suggestion would be Fernando Torres, who is by now almost certainly surplus to requirements. But although the whispers linking the striker to a move overseas are intensifying, they're subject to the same old caveats: his wages are high, his production is low and he's perfectly happy to stay where he is. Alternative options include ditching John Obi Mikel or re-loaning Oriol Romeu; conspiracy theorists might enjoy tootling on the Eden Hazard to Paris Saint-Germain once more.

But one name that won't come up (at least in this regard) is Romelu Lukaku, who still counts as an under-21 player for Premier League purposes and is association-trained for UEFA's. It's looking increasingly likely that he'll be sticking around, although with Lukaku you're never quite sure where you stand.