Chelsea youngster close to finalising transfer as club look to avoid last season repeat

Chelsea youngster Harvey Vale is close to joining League One side Bristol Rovers on a season-long loan deal with the 19-year-old looking to get first-team minutes elsewhere

Harvey Vale is close to finalising a season-long loan move to League One club Bristol Rovers, football.london understands.

Now, Vale looks set to move to Bristol Rovers – managed by former Premier League midfielder Joey Barton. Rovers have drawn their first two matches of the 2023/24 season and are set to welcome Vale to the club to improve their attacking options.

Chelsea will be hoping to avoid a repeat of last season's loan for Vale where he struggled to get regular minutes. The England Under-20s international, who signed his first professional contract at Chelsea in September 2020, made his senior debut in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup in December 2021, starting in a 2-0 win against Brentford.

Vale was not the only academy player involved on that day. The youngster, when speaking to Chelsea's official website last year, admitted that playing alongside a group he knew so well eased the nerves of his first-team debut.

"Definitely. It's always nice coming over from the Academy as a group," the teenager said. "It can be scary if you come by yourself. I was speaking to one of the other boys with me and he said if he came over by himself, he wouldn't know where to go, so as a group you can stick together and you feel a bit more at home.

"There's a few times when I've come in by myself and everyone did make me feel welcome but it's nice to share those moments with your mates."