Report: Chelsea have been granted permission to speak with Jack Butland

I don't usually like to link to The Sun, but this evening they have news about Chelsea's interest in Jack Butland that involves a quote from the player's agent. The paper is attributing the following quote to Gary Mellor, indicating that the Blues have had a bid accepted for the young English keeper and have been given permission to speak to the player.

"Chelsea have been given permission to speak to Jack. At this moment they are the only club who have registered a bid."

If this is correct, I'd imagine that there is a good chance that Butland and the Blues come to an agreement in the next couple of days. Butland likely wants regular minutes, but Chelsea have done a good job convincing top young talent to come in recent years despite their lack of academy products in the first team.

It seems like we'll have a story to pay attention to as the last few days of the transfer window wind down, as signing Butland would open up all sorts of possibilities in the future. We'll leave that for it's own post (or posts) later on though...