Jounalist thinks £80m Chelsea player will end up signing for Manchester City

Chelsea could have to offload some of its homegrown players in order to balance their books.

Selling their academy products is one method for the Blues to get around the FFP constraints that are putting them in a tight spot.

Conor Gallagher and Armando Broja have both been linked to transfers away from Chelsea; journalist Martin Lipton claims that another prominent academy graduate may be leaving within the next 18 months.

The journalist has been talking about Chelsea’s predicament on Last Word on Spurs. He believes that Reece James may soon be leaving the team, stating that he believes the right-back will end up joining Manchester City to replace Kyle Walker.

Lipton discussed the possibility of the defender leaving. He said:

“If Chelsea identify a new player they really need and the only way to make those numbers add up is to sell Gallagher then it’s not inconceivable in the next week. It’s more likely in the summer. I think that within the next 18 months both Gallagher and James will have been sold by Chelsea and James will go to Man City as the replacement for Walker. The new owners have never seen James play well and if they can get £80m for him they will.”

James, the current captain of the team, is an academy product who would ideally play for Chelsea for the rest of his career.

But as Lipton points out, his severe injury issues have prevented him from playing to the best of his ability since the new owners took over the club. If the Blues receive a big offer from a team like City, they could let him leave.

This is not the first time James has been linked with a move away from the club. The England international has been linked with a move away to Real Madrid in the past, who reportedly eye him as a replacement of Dani Carvajal.