Tammy Abraham’s contract talks with Chelsea have stalled as his representatives have asked for parity with the £180,000-a-week that team-mate Callum Hudson-Odoi currently earns.
As first revealed by Goal, a 19-year-old winger at Stamford Bridge is working on lucrative terms, but those earnings rely on the youngster hitting a series of targets in order to take home what is one of the highest salaries in world football for a teenager.
Hudson-Odoi had less than a year on his contract when his new deal was finally agreed, but Abraham finds himself in a weaker bargaining position as he has two-and-a-half years still to run on his agreement.
Chelsea have been looking to tie up all of their home-grown talent since Frank Lampard promoted a host of academy graduates into the first-team fold, but talks with 22-year-old Abraham have dragged on for several months without any resolution.
What all parties do agree on, though, is that the No.9 is due a raise in the near future after hitting 14 goals in all competitions this season.
Abraham’s latest achievement was his 87th-minute winner away at Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, and he has emerged as his club’s undisputed main striker.
The Blues star has broken through this season after previously taking in loan spells at Bristol City, Swansea and Aston Villa. Chelsea have had approaches from other clubs in the past to sell Abraham, with Wolves the most recent to have pushed to sign the young forward in a £25 million ($33m) move last January.
Chelsea have already agreed new contracts this season for Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fikayo Tomori, Billy Gilmour and Jamie Cumming.
They want to tie up further academy talent, with Reece James and Tino Anjorin in discussions after making their Chelsea bows this season.
Lampard gave another debut to an academy graduate in 19-year-old Tariq Lamptey against Arsenal and the Chelsea manager has admitted that talks with the young full-back are ongoing as his deal is due to expire in the summer of 2020.
“We’ll see,” Lampard said of agreeing a new deal with Lamptey after his debut. “He’s talking with the club and hopefully he feels a bit of love from today as we’ve parachuted him in. He was actually on his Christmas break when we called him in yesterday. He trained and then played.”