Reading's new signing John Swift has revealed that he turned down a new contract from Chelsea so he could play for Manchester United great Jaap Stam.

The 21-year-old midfielder, who is a product of the Chelsea academy, signed a three-year deal with the Championship side after his contract with the Blues expired earlier this summer.

The England U21 international also turned down interest from Brentford, where he spent last season on loan.

"We had good interest already from Reading but when Japp came in from Ajax it was really appealing to me - he wants to play football the way I do," Swift told Get Reading.

"I met him and that made up my mind… he's someone to learn from, someone who has been at the very top level.

"Obviously he didn't play in the same position as me but I can definitely learn from him every day in training.

"As soon as I knew that I wasn't going to sign for Chelsea, Brentford were one of the teams that came in to sign me.

"But I was playing on the left there last season. Obviously I enjoyed it but I didn't want to just settle on that. I wanted to look everywhere else.

"So luckily I waited, then Jaap came in at Reading and it was all done and dusted."