Chelsea confirm squad for preseason friendly against Crawley Town

A Chelsea development squad will take on fourth division Crawley Town at Broadfield Stadium this Saturday as both teams continue their preseason preparations. The development squad actually have two fixtures scheduled for that day, so in bit of a baseball Spring Training move, the squad will be split, with half of them going down to the coast to Crawley and the other half staying at Cobham to take on Southend.

Crawley feature former Chelsea prospects Kaby Djaló and Billy Clifford and were managed for most of last season by former Chelsea U21 coach Dermot Drummy. They are currently managed by former Leeds and Liverpool hero Harry Kewell.

According to Crawley Town’s official website, the Chelsea traveling squad, managed by Chelsea legend and current loanee liaison Eddie Newton, will include the following 17 players.

GOALKEEPERS: Jamal Blackman, Mitchell Beeney
DEFENDERS: Tomas Kalas, Michael Hector, Fikayo Tomori, Jake Clarke-Salter, Kenneth Omeruo, Cole Dasilva
MIDFIELDERS: Kyle Scott, Mukhtar Ali, Isaac Christie-Davies, Ruben Sammut
FORWARDS: Jeremie Boga, Charlie Wakefield, Ike Ugbo, Islam Feruz

So a fairly healthy mix of (former and future) loanees, youngsters, and fringe players, none of whom, we can probably assume, are due to travel with the first-team squad on the Tour of Asia, which is set to begin next week.

The Chelsea first-team’s first (official) preseason match isn’t scheduled until the 22nd, against Arsenal in Beijing, though rumors persist of at least one, if not two, unofficial friendlies before then.