According to David Ornstein if the Athletic, Chelsea have agreed a fee of £19 million with Aston Villa for 18 year old attacking midfielder Omari Kellyman.
Since joining from Derby County’s academy two years ago, Kellyman has made just six senior appearances for the Claret and Blue Army, totalling only 153 minutes.
His sole start came against Hibernian in the Europa Conference League play-off round second leg, after they’d won the first leg 5-0 in Edinburgh, providing an assist.
Aside from that, he’s made just five brief cameo substitute appearances, coming on against Everton in the EFL Cup, Manchester City and Crystal Palace in the Premier League as well as Ajax and Olympiacos in Europe.
He has also represented both England and Northern Ireland at youth level, currently hoping to represent the Three Lions at senior international level, even though the IFA would love him to join their young squad.
Profitability and Sustainability Rules implications
This signing is particularly interesting considering Ian Maatsen is moving in the opposite direction, set to join Aston Villa from Chelsea for a reported £35 million.
The Blues and the Villans are both, reportedly, on the verge of breaching Profitability and Sustainability rules, so we could see move of these unofficial swap deals in the coming years as two clubs agree deals with each-other that may prove mutually beneficial for both.
Kellyman’s arrival would be a continuation of Chelsea’s transfer strategy
Since Clearlake Capital have taken control over Chelsea, led by Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and José E. Feliciano, they’ve obviously spent a lot of money in the transfer market, around £982 million to be exact, with their strategy, at least in theory, to buy young, up-and-coming players before anyone else knows about them.
Just last summer, the Blues bought Carney Chukwuemeka from Aston Villa for £20 million, he made just 12 appearances largely due to an ankle injury, with Kellyman seemingly set to follow suit.
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Mudryk, Malo Gusto, Benoît Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Andrey Santos, Cesare Casadei, Gaga Słonina, Lesley Ugochukwu, Đorđe Petrović, Axel Disasi, Deivid Washington and countless others (we could go on!) certainly fit this profile, so the potential signing from Kellyman would suggest, despite delivering 12th and then sixth placed finishes to date, the ownership are sticking to their model.
