Football finance expert Stefan Borson has offered his view on Chelsea's transfer interest in Manchester City teenager Nico O'Reilly.

The 19-year-old was heavily linked with a move to Stamford Bridge in the winter transfer window as Enzo Maresca sought to strengthen his midfield options. O'Reilly made his Premier League debut for Pep Guardiola's side just last month, stepping in from the substitutes bench during a 6-0 victory over Ipswich Town at Portman Road.

Chelsea approached City about O'Rielly's availability but were turned down. It is reported that initial discussions broke down when the Premier League champions insisted on a buy-back clause.

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And Borson maintains that Guardiola’s team could have made a significant profit by selling O’Reilly in the January transfer window. He claims the midfielder could have been gone for at least £40million, which would have been a huge FFP (financial fair play) boost to City due to his homegrown status.

“I guess the most interesting thing actually was that they appear to have been happy to sell as long as they could get the buyback that they wanted," he told Football Insider.

“They would have actually sold him. He’s not really played and City seems to have been quite desperate in midfield, so the manager clearly doesn’t think he’s quite ready.

“But Chelsea seemed to think he was. I don’t really see from a Chelsea perspective given that they’ve got Fernandez, Caicedo and Lavia, it’s very hard to see where he would have gone in to play any games at Chelsea either.

“As always, it’s quite a puzzle as to how Chelsea have any capacity from a PSR perspective. I would have thought a deal for O’Reilly would have been at least £40m. That deal would have been worth quite a lot of money to City if they wanted to cash in.”