Chelsea right back Reece James top of Real Madrid’s transfer shortlist — report

According to Spanish newspaper AS, Real Madrid not only remain interested in Reece James, following on from their interest last summer, but the Chelsea right back is at the very top of their transfer wishlist for this summer.

James is not the only name in that list, but he is above the likes of João Cancelo, currently on loan at Bayern Munich from Manchester City, and Villarreal’s Juan Foyth — as he very well should be. In fact, he should be at the top of anyone’s wishlist, shortlist, pie-in-the-sky-list, dear-santa-list, winning-the-lottery-list, whatever-other-list, if they were putting one together at the position. Good job, Real Madrid scouts.

Real are apparently hoping to take advantage of Chelsea’s need to sell some players this summer, both to help balance the books and simply to reduce the size of the squad to something more manageable than the 30+ we have at the moment. Something closer to 24-25 would be ideal (two per position, plus a few utility players).

Of course, Reecey signed a new long-term contract in September (through 2028) and is obviously untouchable, so Real can have all the interest they want without any real need for us to worry (hopefully).