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Steve Bruce wants to take young rising Chelsea star on loan in January – Report

4 years ago
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According to reports on Sunday morning, Newcastle United are targeting Reece James in the January transfer window.

The young rising Chelsea star played the final few seconds at Stamford Bridge eight days ago as the blues beat Newcastle 1-0, that game his Premier League debut.

Predominantly a right-back, the 19 year old is a versatile player who can play a number of positions.

On Saturday he was given a bit more of a chance, with Chelsea leading 4-0 at Burnley, Reece James replaced Marcos Alonso with 27 minutes remaining, Frank Lampard’s team winning 4-2 after conceding a couple of late goals.

Despite his youth, James has had plenty of football already in his career.

He played the 2017/18 season in Chelsea’s Under 23 team at the age of 17.

Then 2018/19 was a full season on loan at Wigan in the Championship, the then 18 year old making 44 league starts.

He has played at various youth levels for England and was recently called up by the Under 21s.

Reece James scored his first goal for Chelsea when playing the full 90 minutes as they beat Grimsby 7-1 in the League Cup. He has also played twice in the Champions League this season, one sub appearance and the full game when Chelsea won 2-1 away at Lille, James playing right wing-back.

The Sun on Sunday say that Steve Bruce wants to bring in Reece James on loan to play right-back/right wing-back, with Krafth, Manquillo and Yedlin failing to convince him.

On Saturday, Steve Bruce (see below) said that contrary to newspaper claims, he hasn’t so far had any discussions about potential January signings and what money would be available. However, you would imagine a loan deal would be allowed by Mike Ashley, especially as Manquillo will surely leave in this next window, as his contract is up at the end of the season.

If Newcastle do indeed want Reece James, it will be more about Chelsea’s willingness to let him go out on loan. It is likely to depend on the health of their squad and how involved the player is in these next couple of months.

Steve Bruce talking to Sky Sports – 26 October 2019:

Jeff Stelling:

“Will you be allowed to strengthen in the transfer window, is that a discussion that you have had?”

Steve Bruce:

“I have never really had that discussion just quite yet.

“I think it is vitally important that we get over the start and I analyse the squad.

“I have only been here two or three months and the most difficult one is analysing everybody concerned.

“I haven’t seen a couple of them play up to last week.

“Saint-Maximin for example has only played the last couple of games. Yedlin, Dwight Gayle, people like that, I hadn’t seen play until a couple of weeks ago.

“If we can improve then the club will always try and improve but as for conversations of January, I’ve just got on with my job at the moment, which is to try to make a fist of this difficult start what we’ve obviously had.”

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