Why Chelsea should sign Charlie Allen as one for the future
According to claims from Football Insider, as cited by BBC, Chelsea have been credited with an interest in Northern Irish prodigy Charlie Allen, who has also been tracked closely by Premier League rivals Man City and Tottenham Hotspur.
As per the report, Spurs had been in pole position to sign the teenage sensation earlier in the summer but Chelsea have now entered the race and are looking to get one over their London rivals by beating off competition for the 15-year-old attacker.
The same report adds that the Blues have already requested Allen’s current club Linfield to allow the teenager to fly down to Cobham for a trial where he will be monitored closely by the youth coaching staff.
Man City, too, are looking to stamp their authority in the race to sign the sought-after young talent and with so many Premier League clubs weighing up a move, the Northern Irish club seem resigned to losing their prized asset in the near future.
Charlie Allen is still very much an unknown entity in English football but he is highly-rated as one of the best emerging prospects in Northern Ireland. The 15-year-old rose through the youth ranks of Linfield before making his senior professional bow in the NIFL in the last game of the previous campaign, thus becoming the club’s youngest debutant ever.
Allen is yet to sign professional terms with Linfield, given that he is only 15, but a move to the Premier League could be on the cards for the starlet as early as in January, with the teenager set to turn 16 towards the end of November.
The 16-year-old might only have made a solitary appearance at the senior level but he has already been tipped for stardom and is widely regarded in his homeland as a player with the potential to go all the way and carve out a big reputation for himself in the beautiful game.
To put things into perspective, Chelsea have a wonderful track record when it comes to snapping up the best young talent in the United Kingdom and early signs suggest that Charlie Allen could be a future star in the making.
That he is already going shoulder-to-shoulder with the big boys in the professional game at the age of 15 is clearly indicative of a level of maturity that belies his tender years.
The process of transition from the youth to the senior ranks is quite lengthy and Allen, of course, is still in his formative years as a footballer but his meteoric rise, albeit in a not-so-competitive league, is still enough to suggest that he is a special talent.
Even if a move to Stamford Bridge does materialize, Allen would need to progress through several age-groups in the academy and then get some professional experience under his belt on a loan spell at some Football League club before he is ready to stake a claim for a place in the first-team.
Nevertheless, he looks like an exciting prospect for the future, and with the pathway from the academy to the first-team at Stamford Bridge finally beginning to open under the stewardship of Frank Lampard, a move to Chelsea is likely to appeal to Allen, who will be hoping to impress and make a breakthrough at a big club in the years to come.
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All in all, Chelsea beating off competition in the race for Charlie Allen would be a step that clearly underpins their ambitions under Lampard and one that might as well go on to pay rich dividends in the future.