Chelsea and Crystal Palace are ready to pay for Club Brugge youngster Noah Mbamba this month, which could throw a spanner in the works for Bayer Leverkusen.
That’s according to Kicker, who say the Premier League duo are keen on the 18-year-old defensive midfielder.
A report on Wednesday from Het Nieuwsblad made it clear that Chelsea were one of the clubs interested in Mbamba, who is expected to leave Brugge on a free in the summer.
They explained that the youngster has been courted by ‘almost all European top clubs’ for a while but has a contract ready with Bayer Leverkusen to join in the summer.
The German side had therefore gotten ahead of the competition, such as Chelsea, who were ‘clamouring to sign him’ and were ‘confident’ they had won the race.
Kicker follow up on that today, saying that a move to Leverkusen is ‘getting closer’ as they have already agreed a deal with the player.
They say that ‘according to information from Belgium’ that four clubs in England’s top flight have ‘made efforts’ to sign Mbamba, although they only name Chelsea and Crystal Palace specifically.
Those pair want to sign him this month and would also pay Brugge a fee to do so, which would be favourable for the Belgian side than losing him on a free in the summer.
That would obviously cause problems for Leverkusen, who had been hoping to get him on a free but could be forced to instead pay because of the interest from Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
There is also an issue that Brugge may leave the youngster on the sidelines for the remainder of the season and thus it would make more sense to move now and let him play regularly between now and the end of the season.
It’s a situation to keep an eye on. The German side are still confident of winning the race but the interest from the Premier League duo has complicated matters.
