Chelsea may have made headlines for their excessive spending in recent times but let's not forget their history of selling players as well.

Indeed, while the club are renowned for signing world-class names for huge sums of money, they also have a habit of letting talented players go for underwhelming fees.

This summer alone, the Blues have seen N'Golo Kante leave on a free, Kalidou Koulibay exit for almost half the €40 million he signed for last season and Mateo Kovacic join rivals Manchester City for under €30m.

To give some credit to the Blues, they have managed to secure €70m for Kai Havertz, but if the German turns good under Mikel Arteta, Todd Boehly and Mauricio Pochettino may still live to regret letting the German go.

While it remains to be seen whether their outgoing transfers this window are good bits of business, there's absolutely no doubt Chelsea have made some howlers when it comes to letting world-class players go over the years.

As such, we've put together an entire squad of players that previously plied their trade at Stamford Bridge.

And while the current Chelsea team won't even be playing in Europe this season, we're confident this squad would contend for the Premier League title.

Chelsea's squad of sold players

GK: Thibaut Courtois

Courtois established himself as one of the best keepers in the world while on loan at Atletico Madrid from the Blues between 2011 and 2014.

He then returned to Chelsea and helped them win two Premier League titles, before leaving to sign for Real Madrid in 2018.

In fairness to Chelsea, they were desperate to keep the Belgian but they've not managed to adequately replace him ever since.

RB: Tariq Lamptey

Given the emergence of Reece James, it's perhaps no surprise that Chelsea let Lamptey leave.

However, the Blues sold the young full-back for just £3 million to Brighton.

There's no doubt he's worth far more than that now.

CB: Fikayo Tomori

Tomori worked his way into the Chelsea first team under Frank Lampard and even earned his first England cap as a result.

Yet, the Blues let him join AC Milan just a couple of years later, where he's established himself as one of the best central defenders in Europe.

CB: Antonio Rudiger

Again, Chelsea can't necessarily be blamed for this one, but losing arguably one of the best centre-backs in Europe on a free is always going to sting.

What must hurt even more, is that Chelsea's replacement centre-back signings in Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana, failed to make an impact.

LB: Emerson

Ben Chilwell may be the first-choice left-back at Chelsea, but Emerson was always a more than adequate backup.

The Italian started the Euro 2020 final and has plenty of experience in big finals.

To make things worse, after selling Emerson to West Ham last season, the full-back scored against the Blues to rescue the Hammers a draw at the London Stadium.

When you consider how poor Marc Cucurella has been so far, Chelsea may wish they'd just stuck with Emerson after all.

CM: Declan Rice

Rice is set to become the most expensive English player in history and Chelsea let him go for free as a teenager.

The Blues released the Hammers captain from their academy back when he was 14 and while they were long linked with re-signing him, he now appears destined to join Arsenal.

CM: Kevin De Bruyne

Most people will be familiar with this one by now.

Chelsea signed De Bruyne in 2012 but used him sparingly, before shipping him off to Wolfsburg for £18m two years later.

Fast forward almost a decade, De Bruyne is an all-time Premier League great and arguably worth 10 times what Chelsea sold him for.

CM: Mason Mount

As previously mentioned, it may be too soon to judge this one, but it seems criminal that Chelsea are letting Mount join their rivals.

They may have secured more than £50m for his services, but the Englishman is only 24 years old and won Chelsea's Player of the Year twice in a row between 2020 and 2022.

Though there's no doubt Mount struggled at times last season, he's clearly still an exceptional player.

RW: Mohamed Salah

How on earth did Chelsea let this happen? Like De Bruyne, Salah was signed by Chelsea for a significant fee but was barely given a chance.

The Blues actually made a £4m profit on the Egyptian but just imagine if they'd kept him...

LW: Eden Hazard

This is probably one of the only transfers Chelsea have got right in this team.

Hazard was incredible for Chelsea and was no doubt one of the best players in the Premier League during his time at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues sold the Belgian to Real Madrid in a deal worth up to €150m back in 2019, yet he failed to maintain the same level in Spain.

It seems Chelsea sold him at just the right time.

ST: Romelu Lukaku

Where to start with this saga?

The Blues signed Lukaku for £10m in 2011, before selling him for £28m after he played just 10 Premier League games for them.

To make matters worse, Chelsea then re-signed the Belgian for a club-record £97.5m in 2021, only to loan him out to Inter a season later.

Technically, he remains a Chelsea player, though he has been linked with a permanent move to Italy.

Substitutes - Edouard Mendy, Kurt Zouma, Nathan Ake, Nemanja Matic, Jamal Musiala, Tammy Abraham, Arjen Robben

Given how many players there were to choose from, we just had to come up with a substitute's bench as well.

Zouma was sold to West Ham for a fair price two seasons ago, but the Frenchman has been brilliant for the Hammers since signing.

Equally, Ake has developed into an exceptional player under Pep Guardiola and the Blues are in dire need of a defender of his calibre right now.

Like Lukaku, Matic was bought, sold, bought then sold again by the club.

And while Musiala never actually played a game for Chelsea, he spent eight years in their youth academy before joining Bayern Munich as a 16-year-old.

Robben is another to turn into a superstar at Bayern after playing for Chelsea. The Dutchman did enjoy a successful time at the Blues, but there's no doubt the club wish they'd kept him.

And to finish, Abraham is yet another player the Blues may regret letting go of, especially given their current striker predicament.

With this summer's transfer window still young, there may yet be more players to add to this squad soon.