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Chelsea could soon be joined in Hong Kong by Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck, with the experienced pair being brought in so new manager Xabi Alonso has some senior know-how available within his squad.

The Blues have remained active in the transfer market since the end of the World Cup. Henderson and Welbeck would arrive after Marco Palestra, Emmanuel Emegha and British transfer record signing Morgan Rogers in what is already a crowded group.

One of the key issues Alonso will need to sort out sooner rather than later is selecting a squad that complies with Premier League rules for the 2026-27 season.

Chelsea will not be playing in European competition, which means the Premier League will be Alonso’s main focus and leaves the Blues facing a major task in trimming their squad.

They will hand in their 25-man squad list to the Premier League at the close of the transfer window, and it must meet the standard regulations.

The squad can contain no more than 25 players, and at least eight of them must satisfy the Premier League’s Home Grown Player (HGP) criteria:

“A player who irrespective of nationality or age, has been registered with any club affiliated to the Football Association or the Football Association of Wales for… three entire seasons, or 36 months, before his 21st birthday (or the end of the season during which he turns 21).”

Players born after the beginning of 2005 will count as under-21s and do not need to be named in the squad list, though they can still feature in Premier League matches.

Chelsea’s HGP submissions last summer were Tosin Adarabioyo, Trevoh Chalobah, Liam Delap, Reece James, Joao Pedro, Robert Sanchez, Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill and Raheem Sterling.

The players who qualify as HGP this season are Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Delap, James, Pedro, Sanchez, Palmer, Colwill, Rogers, Welbeck, Henderson and Teddy Sharman-Lowe — so, in practical terms, that requirement will not be a problem.

Chelsea felt the need to bring in two players aged over 35 precisely because so many first-team and fringe players are eligible as under-21s. From a squad-management perspective, the major advantage is that very few players are genuinely in danger of missing out, and even fewer are likely to remain at the club long enough for it to become a major issue.

The arrival of Mike Penders leaves goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen vulnerable, although he is on his way to Strasbourg, while also opening up room for somebody else; Penders is 20.

Liam Delap, who is not required to help fulfil the HGP quota, has been at Chelsea for only a year but already appears to be surplus to requirements. The striker managed just one Premier League goal last season and looks more likely to be included in another club’s squad than Chelsea’s by the time the transfer window shuts.

The same applies to Senegal striker Nicolas Jackson, who spent 2025-26 on loan at Bayern Munich and is widely being linked with Aston Villa. As things stand on paper, he would be outside Chelsea’s senior squad places.

The fourth and final player likely to miss out, for fairly obvious reasons, is Ukrainian winger Mykhailo Mudryk, whose four-year ban after failing a drugs test still has two seasons remaining.

With more than a month still left in the summer transfer window, Alonso is unlikely to have finalised all of his decisions. Chelsea are expected to make further signings and are also almost certain to allow several players to leave.

Until then, everything remains open.