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Young Chelsea right back Reece James may be recovering from ankle surgery at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped his name from making the rounds in the rumor mill.
Following recent tabloid speculation that Crystal Palace would launch a £20m bid, Sky Sports have claimed today that the Eagles, “one of a number of clubs”, are “monitoring” the 19-year-old highly promising youngster, who swept Wigan Athletic’s end of season awards while on loan there last term.
As with all good vague rumor-mongering, Sky do add that Chelsea are “highly unlikely” to sell the kid frequently assumed to be part of the Chelsea first-team this summer, once he does recover from the ankle injury he suffered at the Toulon Tournament with England.
Palace do need a right back after Aaron Wan-Bissaka moved to Manchester United for £50 million, so perhaps a loan deal might be in offing. That wouldn’t be as exciting as James staying with Chelsea, but would perhaps offer him a better development opportunity, just as it did for Ruben Loftus-Cheek a couple years ago.