Chelsea's £26m sale of unwanted star hailed despite Enzo Maresca's transfer wish

It has been hailed as Chelsea's best bit of departing business since Clearlake Capital arrived as owners. Renato Veiga arrived from Basel months ago in a £12 million deal, made one Premier League start before heading to Juventus on loan and is now off to Villarreal for up to £26 million.

That the defender's sale comes at a time when head coach Enzo Maresca has made it clear that he is keen to strengthen his backline following the season-long injury to Levi Colwill should still not come as a surprise. Benoit Badiashile is still on his way back from injury, though Tosin Adarabioyo is fit to feature against West Ham on Friday night, while several other fringe Chelsea stars are set to depart in the next 10 days.

Italian coach Maresca had long made up his mind that Veiga was not of the standard required, despite claiming early last season that he valued the now senior Portugal international’s versatility when using him further forward in the Europa Conference League

But demanding more game time at his favourite position before heading on loan to Juve for the second half of the campaign did not help Veiga’s cause either, with those requests leading to a dim view taken behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge.

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Asked midway through last season, shortly before he went on loan to Juve, if Veiga deserved more game time, Maresca joked: “I said many times, I also want long hair, but we also have more than 20 players, 25 players, and they all want to play but it’s not possible.”

He then added that he valued the versatility of Veiga, 22, and stressed that his use in other roles led to a first senior national team call-up.

“We bought Renato from Basel, he arrived here, has played in different positions, played well, and this allowed him to join the national team for the first time in his life, the senior national team,” Maresca added at the time.

“Probably if he is not playing in his position, and also in the international team not playing in his position, it means he can do well, and we are very proud of all of our players who join their international teams but especially in this case, a young player who joins Chelsea, starts to play different positions, four or five different positions, that gives him the chance to join the national team so we are very proud about that.

“I had a chat with Renato and I said exactly the same thing I just say to you in terms of playing in the position he is playing with us gave him the chance to join the international team and also probably gave him the chance to get speculation around him so that means clubs are probably looking at him.

“Clubs are looking for players that are doing well, not that are doing bad. Players that are doing well with the club, with the international team, and as I said, for me, if there is a player who just wants to play in one position, they’re going to struggle.”

Veiga went on to make a dozen Serie A starts in Turin, earning rave reviews. His sale would take Chelsea's income from sales in this window to beyond £200m.

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