According David Ornstein if Athletic, Chelsea have agreed a fee of £19 million with Aston Villa for 18-year-old attacking midfielder Omari Kellyman.
Since joining Derby County's academy two years ago, Kellyman has made just six senior appearances for the Claret and Blue Army, totaling just 153 minutes.
His only start came against Hibernian in the second leg of the Europa Conference League play-off round, after they won the first leg 5–0 in Edinburgh, providing one assist.
Aside from that, he has only made five brief substitute appearances, facing Everton in the EFL Cup, city of manchester and the Crystal Palace in the first division as well as Ajax and Olympiacos in Europe.
He has also represented England and Northern Ireland at youth level and is currently hoping to represent the Three Lions at senior international level, although the IFA would love for him to join their youth team.
Implications of profitability and sustainability standards
This signing is especially interesting considering that Ian Maatsen is moving in the opposite direction, set to join Aston Villa from Chelsea for £35m.
The Blues and Villans are reportedly on the verge of violating Profitability and Sustainability rules, so we could see changes to these unofficial exchange deals in the coming years as two clubs reach agreements between each other that can be mutually beneficial for both. .
Kellyman's arrival would be a continuation of Chelsea's transfer strategy
Since Clearlake Capital took control of Chelsea, led by Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano, they have obviously spent a lot of money on transfer market, around £982 million to be exact, with their strategy, at least in theory, of buying young, promising players before anyone knows about them.
Just last summer, the Blues bought Carney Chukwuemeka from Aston Villa for £20m. He made just 12 appearances largely due to an ankle injury, and Kellyman will apparently do the same.
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Mudryk, Malo Gusto, Benoît Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei, Gaga Słonina, Lesley Ugochukwu, Đorđe Petrović, Axel Disasi, Deivid Washington and many others (we could go on!) certainly fit this profile, So Kellyman's potential signing would suggest that, despite finishing 12th and then 6th to date, the owners are sticking to their model.
