After almost eight months in charge of Chelsea, Frank Lampard mind is rapidly being made up on who has what it takes to survive a major cull this summer.
Among those now in danger of being eased out are England midfielder Ross Barkley, £72million goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and £50m midfielder Jorginho.
Also under the microscope in the final stages of the season are Kurt Zouma, Willian and Pedro as Lampard prepares to get tough with the established names.
And there is little doubt left-sided defenders Marcos Alonso, sent off for a stupid elbow against Bayern, and Emerson are not rated as good enough.
Whether the manager will be able to engineer a situation which will see so many players offloaded in one transfer window remains to be seen.
But he wants to radically change the squad with at least another four signings following the capture of £33m Ajax forward Hakim Ziyech.
Leicester and England left-back Ben Chilwell is rated highly, while a swap deal with Atletico Madrid for their keeper Jan Oblak would solve the Kepa problem.
And then there is the obvious interest in Jadon Sancho, who would be massively expensive at £100m-plus but would bring what is clearly missing right now at Chelsea – goals and assists from out wide.
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Lampard is now making it clear to the power-brokers at the Bridge that if they want to be competing at those levels then they are going to have to get busy this summer.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 years ago
