Read elsewhere it's his agent forcing the move through do to lack of a clear pathway at Everton.
You'd like to think that will improve in the next couple of years if the club gets a little bit of stability. You can't rely on 16/17 Yr olds in a relegation battle. It's just too big a gamble. (unless they're an obvious generational talent)
We honestly have bigger concerns right now than crying over the loss of a decent prospect at left back.
In our current situation I'd rather take 4m today and worry about U18/U21 pathways once we're cemented as a mid table club as opposed to a perennial battler.
It's crap, but that's the reality.
Think the pathway conversation isnt true.
We have 1 first team left back and an injury prone Godfrey who isnt a left back as his back up.
He made the bench a few times last term and would of at the end of the season if he hadent been away with England.
James Vaughan has also done a really good job in the past 12 months of getting positive development loans for our younger players, if he stayed he would get a loan pretty certainlly.
What he will get at Chelsea is a couple of things.
He will be training with the top players in europe for his age group every day, along with top facilitys and top coaches, he will also get better exposure as a 'Chelsea' youth player in terms of there network and ability to get players loans across europe or higher up the ladder (these dont always work).
Chelsea's first team wont be the target for ISS it will be the next few years development then getting the move from chelsea at 19/20 to a team of his choice and a nice profit for Chelsea