TWTD understands that Chelsea youngster Trevoh Chalobah is set to be confirmed as Paul Hurst’s first Blues signing on a season-long loan as the Town first-team squad return to pre-season training this morning. TWTD, who revealed that Town were targeting the 18-year-old last Thursday, will be at Playford Road to speak to the new boss this morning and to take photos of the squad being put through their paces.
As previously reported, centre-half or central midfielder Chalobah was at Playford Road last Tuesday for a look around and to meet Hurst with the clubs subsequently discussing the formalities relating to the switch.
Chalobah is likely to join up with the squad as they return to training at Playford Road this morning. Following six days training on home soil, they will spend the first week of July on a training camp at the Pinatar Arena Football Center, San Pedro del Pinatar, Murcia in Spain
Hurst made a point of recruiting his loan players early on last summer ahead of Shrewsbury’s impressive 2017/18 League One campaign in order to get them firmly bedded into his squad before the season proper got under way.
Chalobah, the younger brother of Watford’s Nathaniel and an England U19s team-mate of Andre Dozzell, Tristan Nydam and Flynn Downes, is yet to make a senior appearance for Chelsea but was named among the subs for the FA Cup final in May.
He joined Chelsea as an U9 and has won numerous honours at academy level, including the UEFA Youth League in 2015/16, the FA Youth Cup (pictured above) the same season, as well as in 2016/17 when he also picked up an U18 Premier League winner's medal.
Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Chalobah, who can also operate at right-back, has been capped by England at U16, U17 and U19 levels.
He was a member of the squad which won the U19s European Championships last summer, alongside Dozzell, but missed the semi-final and final having suffered a knee injury in the final group game.
Last month, Chalobah was among the young England players Gareth Southgate invited to join his senior squad for training sessions at St George’s Park ahead of the World Cup finals.