The unwanted Chelsea players thriving elsewhere from Ian Maatsen in the Champions League final to Golden Boot contenders
As Chelsea continue to under perform in the Premier League, the success of a number of their former players is really rubbing salt in the wound.
Several ex-Chelsea players seem to have blown away the cobwebs since leaving the London club.
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They are now finding success in the Champions League, Serie A as well as the Premier League.
Here, marvelbet369.com looks at some of the players who are certainly not feeling blue since leaving the club.
Ian Maatsen
When Chelsea loaned out Dutch international Ian Maatsen to Borussia Dortmund in January 2024, they were probably not expecting him to prove quite so useful in the German side’s European campaign.
Maatsen played every minute of Dortmund’s clinical Champions League semi-final victory over PSG - indeed, those games took his appearance tally for the club to 20 this season.
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Despite being at Chelsea since 2019, Maatsen never really earned his manager’s trust and only made 15 appearances, as he was instead loaned out to Charlton, Coventry and to Burnley.
With the youngster having proved his worth on foreign shores, new manager Enzo Maresca may well decide he can rely on the 22-year-old - even if his national boss can't.
Tino Livramento
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A product of Chelsea's youth system who was even named academy player of the year for the 2020-21 season, Livramento never made it off the bench for the Blues.
He eventually made the move to Southampton in 2021, more recently having signed for Newcaste in 2023.
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The full-back has been deployed far better at both these clubs, despite the ACL injury which kept him out of the Saints line-up for more than a year.
Livramento was a part of the Newcastle side who sealed qualification for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years - a feat Chelsea were not able to match.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
After 19 years as a Blue, Loftus-Cheek bid farewell to the London club in 2023.
He had scored just one Chelsea goal between 2021 and 2023 and has since admitted he was unhappy with the playing time he was getting.
“At Chelsea I felt like a caged animal, I didn’t play as much as I wanted and when it happened I played in positions where I couldn’t express myself,” Loftus-Cheek told Italian outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport earlier this season.
But the 28-year-old has had no such problems since moving to AC Milan, where he has scored ten goals in his first 40 appearances for the club with no signs of slowing down any time soon.
Wearing no.8, he is in good company following in the footsteps of, among others, Gennaro Gattuso, Carlo Ancelotti and even Chelsea favourite Ray Wilkins.
Dominic Solanke
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Another Chelsea youth product, Dominic Solanke signed for Liverpool upon the expiration of his Chelsea contract in 2017 having been their third-choice striker for some time.
But it was at Bournemouth, the club he joined two years later, where he really shone.
Despite enduring relegation to the Championship with them in his first season, he eventually helped them back to the Premier League in 2022, top scoring with 29 goals.
He battled hard for the Golden Boot and finished with 19 goals. Only Erling Haaland, Cole Palmer and Alexander Isak scored more Premier League goals this season - a statistic made more impressive given Bournemouth finished 12th.
Christian Pulisic
Christian Pulisic’s final seasons at Chelsea certainly finished with a bit of a whimper - the American forward only scored once in his final season for the Blues.
He said upon his transfer to AC Milan in 2023: "For me it's a brilliant opportunity to step away, get a fresh start and play for a big team like this."
And it has been a fresh start indeed.
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He has scored 13 goals in appearances in his first season for the club and broke his career highest league seasonal goal tally after scoring his 10th goal in a Serie A match against Lecce.
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After one year, he is already halfway to matching the goal total he racked up at Chelsea in four seasons.
To see if Maatsen ends the season as a European champion, tune in to talkSPORT for the Champions League final on 1 June from 8pm
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