Chelsea are planning to send Fikayo Tomori out on loan again this season after Kurt Zouma confirmed he is happy to stay at Stamford Bridge.
Tomori starred on loan at Championship club Derby last term under coach Frank Lampard, who was named Chelsea boss earlier this month.
The England Under-21 international is highly rated by Lampard and the backroom staff at the club having progressed through the academy.
However the centre half, who was named on the bench for Chelsea’s friendly against Barcelona in Japan on Tuesday, is unlikely to get enough game time to continue his development.
As Standard Sport reported in May, Zouma was one of the loanees first earmarked to be part of the first team squad in 2019-20.
It means Lampard will have the experienced quartet of Luiz, Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Zouma to choose from in central defence.
While Chelsea are playing in four competitions, including the Champions League, Tomori is in danger of only getting a handful of games.
The Blues are very unlikely to sell their prize asset and it would take a sizeable offer well in excess of £20m to prompt a change of mind.
A loan is being discussed between the hierarchy and his representatives and so far there has been interest from clubs in the Premier League, Bundesliga and Portugal’s top flight – the Primavera. Burnley expressed an interest in buying him earlier in the window but a switch there in any capacity is unlikely at this stage.
There is no interest in a return on loan to Derby, where he was named the club’s player of the year, or any other Championship club as he and Chelsea want to see him tested at the next level.
Zouma was on loan himself at Everton last term but after Lampard made it clear last week that he wants the defender to stay, the France international said: “I’m happy with what the manager said about me. That means he is seeing the work I’m doing and I’m very pleased with that.
“We had a chat, and he was very good with me. He is a very good manager. I enjoyed my time at Everton but I’m a Chelsea player and we’ll see what will happens now in the future. I think it will be here at Chelsea.”
