Relative of £250k-a-week Champions League winner claims he was close to joining Crystal Palace

The father of Reece James has shared how close the England defender was to signing for Crystal Palace.

Reece James has been playing for Chelsea since his youth days. His only time away was a one-season loan at Wigan, where he massively impressed.

Crystal Palace have looked towards the Chelsea academy to pick up players quite a few times. We have seen them loan Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Conor Gallagher over recent seasons.

Despite this, Crystal Palace fans will be gutted to hear how close a top Premier League defender was to signing for the club.

Reece James was apparently close to joining Crystal Palace

The father of the English right-back was chatting recently on The Beautiful Game Podcast. Whilst chatting on the show, Nigel James spoke about some of the tougher times his son was having at Chelsea.

This led the player to nearly leave the club. Nigel James said: “Palace were leading the way (to sign Reece James). I honestly looked at it and thought ‘you best get out’. I thought ‘let’s leave Chelsea now’”.

As he continued speaking, he emphasised how he left the final decision to Reece James and that saw him stay at the Blues. The podcast shared how this move nearly happened after his successful loan spell at Wigan.

Since then, Reece James has become an integral part of the Chelsea team. He is now a high-earner on around £250k-a-week and has won three trophies, including the Champions League.

No doubt it was definitely the right move for the English international to stay at Chelsea but no doubt Palace will be imagining what could have been.

James is one of the top right-backs in the division and Chelsea will be hoping he doesn’t suffer injury setbacks like he did last season.

No doubt Palace are still waiting to find a solid right-back. Their two current options are veterans Joel Ward and Nathaniel Clyne so it would be good if they managed to strengthen in that position.