Chelsea are being linked with countless young players right now – Renato Veiga is apparently doing a medical in the next days, Aaron Anselmino is another player expected to be announced very soon, Marc Guiu has already signed, as has Omari Kellyman.
But a new name popped up over the weekend which we don’t know much about – Caleb Wiley.
The 19 year old Atalanta left back is one of the MLS’s up and coming home grown stars. He’s already got 4 senior USA caps, and plays regularly for his hometown team. It would be a long shot for a relatively unproven player, but there’s no doubt that this talk is coming from somewhere, and he does feel like the sort of player we have been going after in the last couple of years.
Not much has been heard since this report last week – but that doesn’t mean things aren’t progressing in the background.
Where he fits into the BlueCo puzzle
This piece in the Evening Standard today claims that Atalanta would want close to £8m for Wiley.
Chelsea’s current sporting directors have not been afraid to sign players from MLS: both recent goalkeeper signings Djordje Petrovic and Gabriel Slonina came from the USA top flight, and this summer’s endlessly connected transfer option Jhon Duran of Aston Villa also cut his teeth there.
We wonder if Wiley will be the next to arrive from Stateside? The Standard article claims he would go “straight on loan” to our sister club Strasbourg, giving him the perfect chance to pick up experience in Europe in a more forgiving league.
We haven’t heard a huge amount of chatter about this move yet, but it’s one which fits perfectly with our current model, so we are very willing to believe it’s happening at some point.