Chelsea starlet set for loan transfer, Fabrizio Romano confirms

Robin Bairner

• 28 Jan 2023 02:53 CST
• 3 min read

Chelsea are set to trim their first-team squad before the end of the January transfer window, with Fabrizio Romano confirming that one of their brightest young talents will depart.

The journalist has stated that Cesare Casadei is set to leave the club over the weekend to sign for Championship outfit Reading.

Signed for €15 million from Inter in the summer, there was a great deal of hype over the 20-year-old Italian, but he has had no opportunities to impress in what is a stacked first team.

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Casadei, who has an Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €6.2m, has been impressive in the Premier League 2, scoring four goals in nine appearances for a young Blues side that has been in good form this season. This comes off the back of a red card on his debut for the Under-21 side in a Papa John’s Trophy encounter against Sutton United, one of three dismissals he has already had in just 13 outings.

Likened to Frank Lampard when he arrived at the club in the summer, Casadei is, therefore, proving to be more of a Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris with the Chelsea youth teams.

His coaches will hope that a spell playing regular first-team football will see him mature.

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Chelsea's midfield makeover

Certainly, there is scope for the Italy U21 international to make headway at Chelsea in the months ahead, with the future of both N’Golo Kante and Jorginho uncertain at the club.

Meanwhile, the Blues are also actively seeking to reinforce their midfield, with Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez among the targets they have been most actively pursuing this month. Indeed, their hopes of landing the Ecuador international have improved after he took to Twitter to demand Brighton accept a transfer offer for him.

Should Casadei, who is under contract at Stamford Bridge until 2028, impress sufficiently at Reading, though, he will return to Chelsea a candidate for game time next season.