Romano exclusive: Chelsea add Man City midfielder to transfer shortlist | OneFootball

It’s a sleepy Sunday afternoon, but with the transfer window set to slam shut tomorrow, there’s always time for a Fabrizio Romano exclusive out of the blue.

Last week the transfer insider reported on St Etienne midfielder Mathis Amougou as the Blues look to strengthen their midfield options, and today he’s added the name of Nico O’Reilly, the 19 year old Man City talent to the mix.

Chelsea had great success in poaching an underused City asset in the form of Cole Palmer, and clearly want to try and repeat the trick. But as Romano says, it’s “not an easy deal.”

City apparently “don’t want to lose future control on the player.” What we take that to mean is that they will consider loaning him, or maybe selling him with a buy-back clause, but want to retain a stake in some form in their academy product.

O’Reilly has played for England from Under-16 to Under-20 level, and made his debut in the Community Shield for the Citizens back in August. He scored his first goal for the club in the FA Cup match against Salford earlier this year.

O’Reilly a different option to Amougou

Nico O’Reilly dashes down the line in the Community Shield. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

While Amougou would actually fit our team’s current needs for a ball winning midfielder to take the pressure off Moises Caiedo, O’Reilly is more of an attacking midfielder. He would face almost as much competition at Chelsea as he does in Manchester. Although as Palmer showed, competition means nothing if you’re good enough.

There’s no word on whether O’Reilly is keen on the move – although one would imagine that Chelsea wouldn’t pursue it openly if there wasn’t an indication he’s interested.

Given he’s another one for the future rather an someone addressing an immediate need, this is one that doesn’t really need to be done by the deadline – but if there’s an opportunity to grab him on the cheap Chelsea will take it.