Chelsea contracts: No talks with Mateo Kovačić, Conor Gallagher; no progress with Mason Mount

Now that all the dust has settled on the January transfer window, we can once again turn our attentions to already existing contracts, and figuring out what to do with those to help finish reshaping the squad.

First and foremost among those is Mason Mount’s contract, but even though Todd Boehly is said to be personally involved in those talks, we still haven’t made any tangible progress. Mount, the club’s back-to-back Player of the Year now has just 18 months left, and he’s not the only key player to be in that potential predicament.

As the Evening Standard remind us, the Player of the Year before Mount, Mateo Kovačić is also on a contract expiring in 2024. And unlike with Mount, there are apparently no talks going on with Kova, who recently passed the 200-appearance mark for us. He will however turn 29 in a few months, so perhaps that’s affecting the situation — he’s probably looking for one more big contract, and that may not fit into this rebuild.

The Standard’s report adds that there are no talks going on with Conor Gallagher either, but considering his contract is only expiring in 2025, his situation is probably not too high on the priority list.

This might be a good time to briefly review the current contract expirations at Chelsea:

2023: Thiago Silva (should extend soon), N’Golo Kanté (could extend soon?), Marcus Bettinelli (leaving?), Denis Zakaria (we do have a buy-option), João Félix (no option, but might be possible to keep)

2024: Mason Mount (should extend soon), Mateo Kovačić (no talks!?), César Azpilicueta (probably end of line), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (gone long before), Christian Pulisic (probably gone by then), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (who knows), Callum Hudson-Odoi (remember him?), Tiémoué Bakayoko (LOL)

2025: Kepa, Ziyech, Havertz, Chilwell, Mendy, Gallagher

2026: Koulibaly, Lukaku

2027: Sterling

2028+: everyone else