Chelsea forward George Nunn is attracting interest from clubs in Holland and Germany ahead of transfer deadline day, football.london understands.
The 20-year-old has been a regular starter for the Development Squad this season but in the somewhat unfamiliar role of left wing-back, a position the Blues struggled to fill prior to the arrival of Dylan Williams from Derby County.
Nunn joined Chelsea as a 16-year-old from Crewe Alexandra for a fee in the region of £300,000 plus add-ons. The Blues beat a number of Premier League sides, including Tottenham Hotspur, to his signature.
He would score nine goals in 21 appearances during the 2018/19 campaign for the Blues' Under-18s and kept Armando Broja out of the starting XI in the process.
Nunn netted five further goals in 13 games for the youth side during the Covid-disrupted 2019/10 campaign. He also featured for the Development Squad, but often from the wing.
In January 2020, Nunn signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract with Chelsea. It was recognition of the progress he had made after his move from Crewe.
"I think I have developed physically and technically as I moved to the full-time group from Crewe," he told Chelsea's website. "It was a big step up [from Crewe] but I think I settled in well and dealt with it in my first year.
"[The competition at Chelsea] keeps me pushing and working hard to try to get into the team. So I have had to keep my head down and do that. Hopefully, I can break into the first team [in the next two years] and just keep improving."
Nunn's willingness to play out of position has perhaps cost him over the past 18 months. He has predominately been used out on the left and in a role that doesn't best accentuate his penalty-box qualities.
In that period, Nunn has watched the striker he has kept out of the Under-18s starting XI, Broja, go from strength to strength. The 20-year-old has been capped by Albania, enjoyed a strong loan spell at Vitesse last term, and is this season impressing in the Premier League at Southampton.
Broja's dramatic rise was unexpected by many within the academy set-up at Chelsea, but it's one that must be considered when evaluating the next step of a young player's development.
He was given an opportunity to carry his form at youth level into Dutch football and then into the Premier League. Nunn – who trained with the Chelsea first-team earlier this season and has had his contract extended until 2023 – has not been handed that opportunity.
With a little more than 24 hours of the transfer window remaining, a first loan move for Nunn away from Chelsea is a possibility. And should it materialise, the young striker will hope to catch the same momentum that has resulted in Broja becoming one of the Premier League's most-desired forwards.
