Four clubs in for Ishe Samuels-Smith after Chelsea transfer decision

Rangers, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Stoke City are all pushing to sign Ishe Samuels-Smith on loan this summer, football.london understands.

The 19-year-old defender is rated very highly by Chelsea but the club are understood to be open to sending him out on loan in order to get more first team experience. Samuels-Smith signed a new long-term contract extension at Stamford Bridge back in April, meaning he now has a deal with the club until 2031.

In recent weeks, Rangers, Sunderland, Middlesbrough and Stoke have all held club-to-club talks with Chelsea over a possible deal for the teenage defender. Samuels-Smith is currently finishing off some extra conditioning work at Chelsea's training base in Cobham and is due to join up with those that have not travelled for the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup on Monday.

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Chelsea will talk to Samuels-Smith next week over his future and where he would like to go out of all the options on the table at the moment, football.london understands. Sources have said we should know much more about where Samuels-Smith will be playing his football for the 2025/26 season over the next fortnight.

Samuels-Smith will be hoping to have a successful loan spell next season and report back to Chelsea next summer with much more experience to his name. Enzo Maresca has shown since taking over at the Blues 12 months ago that he is not afraid to give academy stars opportunities in the first team.

Namely, Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George have made impressions while featuring for the senior side. However, other academy players have also been involved under Maresca, including Ato Ampah, Genesis Antwi, Kiano Dyer, Shim Mheuka, Reggie Walsh, Harrison Murray-Campbell and Samuel Rak-Sakyi.