Chelsea set their sights on West Brom starlet ahead of January transfer window

Transfer News: Chelsea keen to secure deal for West Brom youngster Leonardo Cardoso

According to the latest transfer news on Football Insider (h/t football.london), Chelsea are eyeing a deal for West Brom starlet Leonardo Cardoso ahead of the January transfer window.

The 16-year-old has produced several eye-catching performances at the youth level but is yet to sign a professional contract with the Baggies. He has already represented England and Portugal in their respective youth setups and is now a part of the Three Lions U-16 squad.

However, it looks like he might already be out of the Hawthorns before playing for their senior side. Chelsea are plotting to plot a move for the youngster ahead of the January window and they are eager on getting the deal done before he signs a professional contract with the Championship club.

The Blues have promoted a lot of young players in recent seasons. This has been especially true since the 2019/20 season after the club underwent a transfer ban and then manager Frank Lampard made use of his resources from the Academy.

This led to the introduction of Reece James, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Billy Gilmour, Armando Broja, among others into the first-team fold.

This season, Thomas Tuchel has shown that he is also open to giving a chance to the starlets. He brought in Trevoh Chalobah into the senior squad and also recently named 18-year-old Harvey Vale in the UEFA Champions League squad to face Malmo.

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Moreover, the development of their players is such that even though they do not feature for the Chelsea senior side, they garner interest from Premier League clubs. This was evidenced by Brighton signing Tariq Lamptey, Southampton getting in Tino Livramento and Armando Broja (on loan). Crystal Palace, meanwhile, secured moves for Conor Gallagher (on loan) and Marc Guehi.

Hence, if Cardoso does aim to make it big in his career, the Cobham academy is a fantastic platform to do so. And should he perform well, he could make it into the senior side and compete for the biggest trophies in the land.