Why Chelsea could struggle to sign English football’s most precocious 17 year old

The season is moving steadily onwards, and it won’t be long until we hit the January transfer window.

Chelsea are not expected to do any major business, but they will certainly look to keep expanding their army of talented young players. One who we have had linked to us since September is Chris Rigg of Sunderland.

The 17 year old looks like one of the true prodigies in English football, having established himself as a Championship regular in midfield at such a young age. He has 13 appearances across all competitions already this season, and has been a big part of the Black Cats’ rise to the top of the division under manager Regis Le Bris.

CaughtOffside today report that Man U and Chelsea remain in the chase, but are currently being warned off by Sunderland, who are insisting on keeping the youngster until the summer at the very least as they look to secure automatic promotion – and perhaps even the Championship title.

Chelsea will do their best to secure Rigg – but he may have developed demands they can’t match

It may be tough to sell Rigg on a move simply because he’s already so advanced in his development. Most players of his talent level want to be shown a clear pathway, and Chelsea are going to struggle to sell him on a career at the club given he’s already a regular first team starter.

It’s going to be tough to get him to give that up to return to being a youth player, or someone with years of loans ahead of them before they get a sniff in the first team. If he’s sensible, he will probably take a move to a smaller team with space to slot him in right away, and then take his Champions League transfer a couple of years later.