Real Madrid to target Chelsea star following ‘repeated scouting missions’

Lewis Oldham
Real Madrid target Reece James

According to reports, Real Madrid will ‘test the resolve’ of Chelsea this summer as they are interested in signing England defender Reece James.

After shining in the Championship with Wigan, James became a regular for Chelsea during the 2019/20 campaign.


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The defender has established himself as one of Chelsea’s most important players in recent years. He has played 115 games for his boyhood club across all competitions.

The 22-year-old played in both legs as the Blues were beaten by Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.

The Mirror are reporting that Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti is an admirer of James. The full-back is ‘high’ on the manager’s list of transfer targets.

His performances against Real Madrid were ‘closely scrutinised by Ancelotti’s scouting department’. They add that the Spanish giants have watched James play ‘at least nine times this season’.

Elsewhere, Joe Cole reckons Romelu Lukaku has “six weeks to save his Chelsea career”:

“Lukaku has six weeks to save his Chelsea career. You look at Werner and he doesn’t give up. Lukaku wants to be that focal point but he missed a chance.

“When it’s not going for you, it’s not going for you.”

Fellow pundit Ian Wright added: “When you’re going through what Lukaku is going through, this is the type of chance you want. He’s left footed, take it with your left foot.”

Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane also gave his view, he said: “How badly do you really want to score? It’s obviously his mindset, it’s clearly not right.”

Cole continued: “People saw Lukaku as the missing piece of the jigsaw [when he returned to Chelsea last summer], it didn’t happen, but it can come back as quickly as it goes. Football can change in one game.”

Before Keane asked: “How badly does he want to save his Chelsea career?”

And Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel insisted that the only reason Lukaku didn’t start was because of fitness issues. He said: “It’s not easy to come into a game such as this with so much riding on it after a spell out with injury.

“It’s just a case of him not having as much minutes recently as the other players, his match fitness is not quite there otherwise there’s a big chance that he would have started today.”