“Official announcement this week” – Fabrizio Romano gives update on Chelsea securing third summer signing in coming days
Even though the entire football world is currently focused on the Euros, Chelsea is still working on their squad surgery in the background.
Fabrizio Romano said this morning that Omari Kellyman, a young player for Aston Villa, has finished his medical exams in preparation for a potential £19 million transfer to Chelsea. Later today, he will sign a six-year contract with a one-year club option. The completed deal will be announced later this week.
For a comparable price, the offensive midfielder will make the same move that Carney Chukwuemeka made only a few years ago. Although Chukwuemeka has shown promise in spurts, his injuries have prevented him from fully putting things together on a regular basis.
The focus has been on securing a striker, but clearly the scouts love what they see in Kellyman. It’s not clear where he will fit into this squad, given the quantity of talents in his positions – could we see an immediate loan for him? Or does this indicate that someone else is leaving?
Debate set to rage on
The debate about this one will run and run. It’s not just a question of how good he is as a player, or how much we paid for him, or whether he’s blocking the progress of academy player, or whether it’s a good use of our limited resources. It also appears to be (at least in part) a PSR swindle, with Chelsea and Villa among the clubs trading players between them for inflated values in order to boost their income for the summer.
This doesn’t look likely to lead to any punishments, but does look like it will continue to make us pretty unpopular with the owners of some other clubs.
It also makes it pretty hard to judge what the plans for Kellyman are.