Chelsea's interest in Jamie Gittens could see them pay Manchester City more millions, but is that a big enough price for the Blues?
Chelsea are interested in Borussia Dortmund star Jamie Bynoe-Gittens
(Image: Getty Images)
It has been a long-running joke among some Manchester City fans that sporting director Txiki Begiristain's list of transfer targets involves a spreadsheet of every player with a release clause. The Blues have made a habit during the Begiristain era of conducting simple negotiations for players where there is a fee already agreed, rather than getting into long and complicated negotiations.
Down in West London, there must be a similar theory about Chelsea and City academy players. The list of talent that leaves the City Football Academy and then ends up at Stamford Bridge is growing at an alarming rate.
It used to be that Chelsea boasted the best academy in the country, winning the FA Youth Cup five years in a row in the previous decade including routing three very good City teams in consecutive years. They were the youth set-up that Jason Wilcox wanted to emulate when he took control at the Etihad and made it his mission to make City the best.
City have enjoyed great success, both at developing players for their own team but also selling them on to other clubs. Begiristain's insistence on including clauses into the deals of any youngster who leaves has made City's academy incredibly profitable.
Since 2022, it is hard to think of a bigger contributor to City's transfer kitty than Chelsea. Raheem Sterling was the headline £50m buy that summer but it was in October when former City head of academy recruitment Joe Shields joined from Southampton that the interest really ramped up.
Either directly or indirectly, Chelsea have ended up paying City for Cole Palmer, Romeo Lavia, Liam Delap and if they complete a deal for Dortmund's Jamie Gittens they will give City another payday. That's in addition to having Tosin Adrabioyo, Enzo Maresca and having had Jadon Sancho for the past year as well, and trying but failing to sign Nico O'Reilly in the January window.
It is serious money that Chelsea have handed over to City in the past three years, yet the move for Delap and interest in Gittens shows that they clearly aren't bothered about giving millions to a Premier League rival if it means they get the players they want. After all, the deal for Palmer showed that there is still excellent value to be had in lumping money up to the Etihad.
City will gladly take the money, but should Chelsea's persistent interest in their academy graduates force a change? Back in 2019, they put a specific clause into Brahim Diaz's move to Real Madrid whereby a 10 per cent sell-on clause became 40 per cent if the buying club was Manchester United.
That came after United showed interest in signing Jadon Sancho (they did eventually end up giving City nearly £10m when they bought him from Dortmund in 2021) but showed that City were willing to adapt to their experiences. As the world of transfers keeps turning, could a Chelsea tax be the latest clause for City to tag onto any of their academy deals as they look to protest their interests going forwards?
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