• Bosingwa and Kalou released at end of contracts
• Florent Malouda and Michael Essien set for talks
Chelsea have released two more of their Champions League-winning team, with José Bosingwa and Salomon Kalou told to find fresh employment. The west London club, who have already allowed Didier Drogba to leave, have chosen not to take up the option on Bosingwa while Kalou, who is at the end of his contract, has not been granted new terms.
Florent Malouda, Michael Essien and Paulo Ferreira, who each have one year remaining at Stamford Bridge, will be invited for new contract talks over the summer, although there is no guarantee that they will stay. Frank Lampard, the other player with 12 months to go, is expected to agree a new deal.
If the moves reinforce the theme of evolution at Chelsea, there remains no further clarity on the identity of the club's next permanent manager. Roberto Di Matteo, who has worked under the moniker of "interim coach", may have delivered the Champions League and the FA Cup but he will be made to sweat over his longer-term prospects as the club waits to convene a meeting between the owner, Roman Abramovich, and the board of directors.
The chief executive, Ron Gourlay, described Di Matteo as being "in the mix" but the club's former midfielder must surely question why he has not already been appointed. There are clearly doubts about whether he is the right man to revive Chelsea's Premier League fortunes and Gourlay suggested that the support Di Matteo had built inside the dressing-room may not count for much in the final reckoning.
"We do listen but it won't force us to rush into a decision," Gourlay said. "We have to get it right. The players will always have a view but at the end of the day, it will be the owners and the board of directors that will decide the best way forward. Of course, we speak to the players and we're always listening, but we won't get into the scenario where the players pick the next manager."
Chelsea have a serious interest in the Lille attacking midfielder Eden Hazard – who has also been linked with the two Manchester clubs – as well as a clutch of big-name strikers while there have been claims that they have seen a €40m (£32m) offer rejected for the 19-year-old Brazil and São Paulo midfielder Lucas Moura.
"We did not accept the offer but Chelsea is the closest to signing Lucas," said São Paulo's president, Juvenal Juvenico. "Internazionale made an offer of €20.2m but this was not considered sufficient by us. Real Madrid is one of the other interested clubs. Lucas is a big player who will triumph in Europe, but São Paulo will only sell him for an enormous offer."
Chelsea have already brought in Marko Marin and Kevin De Bruyne and they can be expected to add at least two more significant signings yet Gourlay warned that they would not be held to ransom or drawn in to bidding wars. "We have financial fair play [coming in] and other clubs are in the same situation as us," he said. "We will have a valuation on a player and if we can't make that work, we'll drop out. At the end of last season, I said we would not get into player bartering with any other club domestically and that's still the view."
Chelsea will consider whether to loan out De Bruyne and the striker Romelu Lukaku and, also, to recall the goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois from his successful loan at Atletico Madrid. Yossi Benayoun is scheduled to return to Stamford Bridge from his loan at Arsenal. Read More
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