Liverpool hijacked by Chelsea as bids submitted
Chelsea are working on beating Liverpool to the signing of wonderkid Mason Melia after submitting multiple bids, sources have told Football Insider.
The striker, 15, is on the radar of the Merseyside giants after making a name for himself in Irish senior football, where he became the youngest-ever player and goalscorer for his club St Patrick’s Athletic.
Football Insider revealed on 22 March that Liverpool are keen on luring Melia following rave reviews from their talent spotters and have registered an interest in signing him.
But the 20-times Premier League champions fear Chelsea are about to blow them out of the water with the package they can offer to Melia.
It is believed the mega-spending Londoners have lodged a number of bids for the teenager and are also trying to lure him with eyecatching financial inventives.
Chelsea have made it a policy to lure the best talent in the UK and Ireland since the Todd Boehly-led takeover changed the shape of English football last summer.
They have also spent huge sums are building the most expensively assembled recruitment team in world football.
Melia last month became St Patrick’s youngest ever senior scorer with a fine strike against Wexford in the Leinster Senior Cup aged 15 years and 132 days.
The previous record holder was Kian Corbally, who also scored in the Leinster Senior Cup in a 3-1 win against Sheriff YC in 2019.
Melia is also the youngest player to make a senior appearance for St Patrick’s in the modern era, when he scored 25 minutes into his debut as a substitute.
The teenager was previously on the books at Bray Wanderers but decided to switch to the St Patrick’s.
He is also a Republic of Ireland youth international at Under-17 level and played a key role as they clinched the Under-16 Victory Shield in the latter stages of 2022.
In other news, Liverpool on course to land £96m jackpot