How Reece James injury may have played into Chelsea’s hands and securing them huge talent for the future | OneFootball

Fantastic news is emerging from Cobham, where it’s been confirmed that Chelsea have finally agreed a new deal with talented young defender Josh Acheampong.

The 18 year old has signed a long team deal until 2029. After turning 18 at the end of last season, Acheampong went for preseason with the main squad and has clearly impressed Enzo Maresca, who included him regularly in training until the club took the risky decision to freeze the youngster out until he signed a long term deal.

With this deal now done, we expect pretty regular appearances for Josh in the rest of the campaign, either coming off the bench or starting for the B team – tomorrow night’s game against Shamrock Rovers at home should be a perfect chance for him to celebrate his new deal with another appearance.

Acheampong signs up at last

Josh Acheampong signs new Chelsea contract. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)

We were very pessimistic about that move – so far, the attempts to strongarm players into signing new deals by freezing them out of action has only led to the players leaving.

But in this case, it’s paid off. Curiously, it may be that the latest injury to Reece James has had positive unintended consequences. Acheampong was stuck in a Catch 22 where he didn’t want to sign a new deal without getting more minutes, but wouldn’t get picked until he agreed a new deal.

The injury to James opened up an immediate and obvious pathway for Josh – the club were able to say he would go straight into the B team if he agreed a new deal, and that broke the deadlock. One we saw his name on the teamsheet for our last Conference League game, we knew it was done – although as we said, we wouldn’t celebrate until we saw him with pen in hand.

Well – there you go. Job done.