Chelsea midfielder Omari Kellyman is being put up for loan by the club, according to a piece from the switched-on and in the know Nizaar Kinsella for the BBC.
The 19 year old signed from Aston Villa in the summer for £19m, but has yet to play a minute in the first team, and has only picked up a handful for the Development Squad. He signed injured, then picked up a much more severe hamstring problem in September which he’s only now ready to return from.
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Chelsea in group team training.
A Chelsea flag flies at Wembley. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
It must have been a tough rehab, feeling pretty lost in the cracks and not able to contribute to his new team. Kinsella claims he’s “gained a lot of muscle mass,” in the 4 months he’s been out.
The England Under-19 regular is apparently looking at Championship options for a loan, and should be fit to make a move in a couple of weeks when the January transfer window opens. Perhaps Frank Lampard’s Coventry City could be an option?
Omari Kellyman in training for Chelsea
Omari Kellyman in training for Chelsea
Kellyman already faces uphill battle to earn back huge £19m fee
The move to buy Kellyman was always a strange one – it felt like we were giving Aston Villa the money for them to buy Ian Maatsen from us, in a bit of PSR sleight of hand. Kellyman is clearly a talent, but certainly wasn’t highly rated enough for a fee of that size to seem normal.
The best thing he can do now is to go to the Championship and start excelling on loan. But it’s hard to see the £19m we paid for him looking anything other than crazy money unless he really becomes an instant star there.
But the longest journey starts with a single step, and the important thing now is to get him playing regularly again, then go from there.