City Have ‘Knocked Back’ Enquiry From Chelsea For 19 Year Old Who Has Played Only 18 Minutes In The Premier League

Manchester City have rejected an approach from Chelsea for Nico O’Reilly, according to reports.

The 19-year-old is one of the club’s brightest young prospects and the Secret Scout claims that the Premier League champions have “knocked back” the enquiry from their rivals.

It is believed that it would take a massive bid to tempt the Cityzens into selling O’Reilly so Chelsea have already decided to explore other options, rather than table a formal offer for the player.


Pep Guardiola’s side are clearly mindful of past mistakes, having allowed Cole Palmer to make the switch to Stamford Bridge at the start of last season.

O’Reilly has just started his senior career

The teenager has made six senior appearances for City so far, making his debut against Manchester United in the Community Shield back in August.


O’Reilly has subsequently featured in domestic cup competitions, the Champions League as well as the Premier League, where he came on for the last 18 minutes of the 6-0 win over Ipswich Town last month.

The midfielder has also scored his first professional goal this campaign, finding the back of the net during the 8-0 victory against Salford in the FA Cup third-round tie.

City want to add numbers in midfield

Considering that the Cityzens are already light of options in the middle of the park, it wouldn’t have made sense to sanction O’Reilly’s sale anyway.

In fact, they could still look to strengthen that area of the pitch before the transfer window closes. Talks have been held with Porto over signing Nico Gonzalez.

At the time of writing, the two sides are quite far apart in their valuations of the Spaniard. City are only willing to pay €40m (£33m), while his club are holding out for his €60m (£50m) release clause.

Find out who is in Manchester City’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here

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David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.