Chelsea make check on former Manchester City midfielder with Etihad Stadium sell-on clause

Manchester City could keep one eye on a sell-on clause included in their deal that took James McAtee to Nottingham Forest in the most-recent summer transfer window.

McAtee decided to part ways with his boyhood club on a permanent basis this summer in the backdrop of a 2024-25 season wherein the 23-year-old struggled for regular minutes in his first full season back in the Manchester City senior ranks after successive loans at Sheffield United.

The Salford-born playmaker considered a January exit amid interest from Bayer Leverkusen but Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola pleaded with the academy graduate to see the season through as the Blues struggled with key absences in midfield and spent over £180 million on reinforcements in the January transfer window.

Guardiola handed McAtee a new lease of life in the business stages of the 2024-25 campaign as the midfielder made his first set of Premier League starts, notably scoring on his full debut in the English top-flight as Manchester City came from two goals behind to claim an emphatic 5-2 triumph over Crystal Palace in April.

However, it was too little, too late in terms of a show of faith as McAtee decided to captain England at the FIFA U-21 World Cup in the summer over a chance to represent Manchester City at the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

Clubs across the Bundesliga expressed varying levels of interest in the Englishman, who toured suitor clubs’ facilities in Germany before deciding to stay in England and join Nottingham Forest for £30 million.

Manchester City are understood to have included sell-on and buy-back clauses in the playmaker’s sale to the City Ground – a standard practice for the Blues in the event of academy graduate sales over the years.

The Blues remain in an embryonic stage of their transition under director of football Hugo Viana, who made sweeping changes to Guardiola’s ranks in the summer, and while the jury remains out on whether they can sustain their recent purple patch, City could well finish the season with silverware.

Meanwhile, McAtee has so far struggled to establish a regular starting place in the east Midlands following major upheaval at the City Ground, where Ange Postecoglou was sacked as manager in October 39 days into his reign and replaced by Sean Dyche.

Now, according to the information of Mail Sport’s Simon Jones, both Leeds United and Chelsea have checked on McAtee’s situation at Nottingham Forest, while Bournemouth, Fulham, and Sunderland have varying degrees of interest in a loan deal for the player.

It is explained that while Dyche and the club’s hierarchy think highly of the 23-year-old and maintain he has a bright future at the club, his 10 appearances so far this season with several from the substitutes’ bench has alerted interested clubs.

Further afield, it is pointed out that Bundesliga sides Stuttgart, Red Bull Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt have maintained a watching brief on McAtee, while Porto and PSV Eindhoven are also among the player’s admirers.