The Blues are visiting Europe’s top clubs circle around several academy talents who have yet to renew their contracts.
Chelsea’s teenage winger Samuel Illing-Junior has been watched by a host of Europe’s top clubs, including Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Ajax and Schalke.
The Blues are eager to keep hold of Illing-Junior however they face losing the 16-year-old for a little compensation fee as his childhood contract expires shortly and professional terms have never been signed.
PSG and Bayern have experienced some success in registering youth players from Chelsea, with Marcin Bulka and Jamal Musiala both having abandoned in similar conditions, while Schalke and Ajax have been sending scouts to academy games in Cobham to goal the talent.
England Under-17 global Illing-Junior broke into Chelsea’s Under-18 and Under-19 squads beforehand and he’s played in his side’s UEFA Youth League campaign.
Frank Lampard has handed debuts to eight players from the club’s academy this year after placing his faith in childhood after years of complaints that gift from the nation’s most prosperous academy of recent years wasn’t getting an opportunity to create senior appearances.
But, with the likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Callum Hudson-Odoi playing regularly, other kids saw fit to leave in January and there are fears that Illing-Junior could stick to the likes of Tariq Lamptey and Clinton Mola from the academy with the pair having combined Brighton and Stuttgart respectively.
Together with Chelsea having handed lucrative long-term contracts to numerous young academy graduates, the likes of Illing-Junior have concerns about competing with Hudson-Odoi and Mount in the long term to become a Chelsea player.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have been tracking Birmingham City’s 16-year-old wonderkid Jude Bellingham, but might have problems persuading Tino Anjorin to renew his contract consequently.
Anjorin made his debut for Chelsea this season and he’s now the star attacker of the present group of kids breaking through, but he’s worried that, together with competing with those in the first group, signing Bellingham may block his future opportunities in Lampard’s side.
The 18-year-old’s contract expires in 2021, although he is one of many kids called into the first-team squad in the upcoming week as injuries begin to mount for Lampard ahead of important matches against Tottenham, Bayern Munich and Liverpool.
