Chelsea have just announced the signing of Caleb Wiley from Atlanta United, on a 6 year deal with a club option for a seventh.
The 19 year old left back has been a regular in MLS, and has caps for the USA national team. He’s currently in Paris preparing for the Olympic games with his country. In total he played 85 games for Atlanta and 33 for their second team. That’s a really impressive number of games for a teenager and probably indicates why the Blues are ready to make their move for him now.
As usual, the statement from the club doesn’t contain any transfer figures, but it’s understood to be in the region of £8.5m. The deal was reported as done 2 weeks ago, and the delay has likely been to do with getting his work permit sorted.
Chelsea is pleased to announce the signing of United States international Caleb Wiley. ✍️
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 22, 2024
A Ligue 1 pathway – but where does it end?
The statement from Chelsea doesn’t mention this of course, but the widespread understanding of this deal is that Wiley is going to go straight on loan to our sister club Strasbourg.
That’s great news for Wiley, who can potentially break into their first team right away and start picking up valuable experience as soon as next month when Ligue 1 kicks off. But it’s a decision that creates some difficulties too, given how crowded the rest of the squad is becoming with these type of prospects in the same age group.
Chelsea already have two established first team left backs in Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella, along with Levi Colwill and Renato Veiga as first team defenders able to play left back too. So this is a natural move for Wiley. The issue is that is uses up one of our precious foreign loan slots, limiting our options with the other players looking to spend this season elsewhere in Europe.
