Chelsea have agreed a new contract with academy graduate Xavier Simons, football.london understands. The midfielder's previous deal was set to expire this summer and a number of Premier League clubs had shown interest in signing him.
Simons joined the Blues in the summer of 2016 after Brentford opted to close their academy. The following year, on his 17th birthday, he signed his first professional contract and would remain with Chelsea until the end of the 2021/22 campaign.
After overcoming a knee injury, Simons established himself as a regular in the Development Squad last season and trained regularly with the first-team squad under Thomas Tuchel. And in December, he was trusted with his senior Chelsea debut in the Carabao Cup, somewhat ironically against Brentford.
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Simons was deployed at right wing-back and produced a composed performance that lasted 65 minutes. He was replaced by Reece James and Chelsea went on to win the quarter-final tie 2-0. There were no further first-team outings for Simons, although he was on the bench for the FA Cup win over Chesterfield in January.
As the season progressed and Simons inched towards the end of his contract, interest in the 19-year-old increased from across the Premier League. And with the Blues working under the sanctions imposed upon Roman Abramovich for the final months of the campaign, it appeared as though the academy graduate would be moving on this summer.
But it's understood that a new deal has been agreed with Simons, who tellingly was not named this afternoon by Chelsea among the released players with first-team appearances to their name. Those were Andreas Christensen, Danny Drinkwater, Charly Musonda and Jake Clarke-Salter.
