Chelsea could have signed Premier League ace for £40m claims football finance expert | OneFootball

Former Manchester City financial advisor Stefan Borson has claimed the English champions would have accepted £40m for Chelsea target Nico O’Reilly.

The Blues made an approach to City for the 19-year-old midfielder but it was rejected, and they settled on signing Mathis Amougou from St Etienne instead.

It’s believed that City wanted a buy-back clause and a percentage of future sale, with Chelsea seemingly not prepared to meet those demands.

City would accept for £40m for Chelsea target

The Blues were scrambling round late in the window for midfield cover given the injury issues that have plagued Romeo Lavia this season, with a lot of strain currently on Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

David Ornstein claimed keeping O’Reilly was one of the best things City did in the window, and they were keen to avoid a repeat of the Cole Palmer situation.

it’s likely Chelsea still retain their interest in the teenager and it will be interesting to see if they revisit this deal in the summer, whilst they are also keeping tabs on Sporting Lisbon’s Dario Essugo.

Chelsea might revisit a move for O’Reilly in the summer. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

O’Reilly made his senior debut for City in the Community Shield back in August and has made seven appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side this season.

Former City financial advisor Borson has claimed they would have accepted £40m for the teenager if Chelsea were prepared to include a buy back clause.

“I guess the most interesting thing actually was that they appear to have been happy to sell as long as they could get the buyback that they wanted, he told Football Insider.

“They would have actually sold him. He’s not really played and City seems to have been quite desperate in midfield, so the manager clearly doesn’t think he’s quite ready.

“But Chelsea seemed to think he was. I don’t really see from a Chelsea perspective given that they’ve got Fernandez, Caicedo and Lavia, it’s very hard to see where he would have gone in to play any games at Chelsea either.

“As always, it’s quite a puzzle as to how Chelsea have any capacity from a PSR perspective.

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“I would have thought a deal for O’Reilly would have been at least £40million.

“That deal would have been worth quite a lot of money to City if they wanted to cash in.”