Chelsea are desperately seeking homegrown talent amid fears they will struggle to comply with quota rules next season.
The futures of Gary Cahill, Cesc Fabregas, Danny Drinkwater, Andreas Christensen, Victor Moses and Rob Green are all uncertain under Maurizio Sarri.
All six are seen as homegrown by the Premier League, with Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek making up the eight UK-schooled players who Premier League regulations require clubs to have in their squad.
And with all six of those homegrown stars potentially leaving next summer, there is a lot of concern within Stamford Bridge about replacing them.
The transfer market for homegrown market, especially England internationals, is notoriously overvalued, and Chelsea could be forced to overpay for homegrown players over the next two transfer windows, if they are to avoid running afoul of Premier League rules.
Looming on the horizon for Chelsea is also a potential four transfer window ban from FIFA for signing under-age players.
If that transfer ban goes into effect, Chelsea will be forced to replace the likes of Cahill and Fabregas with players from their vaunted academy in order to meet regulations.
Ahead of that, I expect to see Chelsea be active in January signing one or two homegrown players to add some experience to the squad.
