José Mourinho has pinpointed Ruben Loftus-Cheek as a player to “stay and play” at Chelsea in the future, having been impressed with the academy graduate’s progress since stepping up from the development squad to train with the first-team.
The 19-year-old midfielder has made two senior appearances as a substitute to date this season, making his debut against Sporting Lisbon in a Champions League group game in December and then taking his Premier League bow as a late substitute against Manchester City at the end of January.
Loftus-Cheek, an England under-18 international who has been at Chelsea since the age of eight, joined Dominic Solanke and Isaiah Brown in participating in training sessions with the seniors since the turn of the year with Mourinho predicting he will make a more prolonged impact in the Premier League next year.
The midfielder was one of 18 outfield players who trained at Cobham on Tuesday before the second leg of the club’s Champions League knock-out tie against Paris Saint-Germain. “Loftus-Cheek is to stay and I think to stay and to play,” said Mourinho as he commented on the club’s newly adopted strategy to insert buy-back clauses into deals when young talent depart Stamford Bridge. “I think next year to play, not just to stay. Stay and play. But you don’t have this kind of talent every couple of years so it is also important to make business.
“At the age of 18 or 19, sometimes you don’t believe that the player can go in a certain direction so you make a couple of million [through a sale] for a player and you are just happy with that. At academy level you know clearly that not everyone is going to become a player for your first team. So sometimes, if you can capitalise on that and make money in small deals, you can make the money you need to invest again and again and again in the academy to get the right talents that you bring to the first team. Loftus-Cheek is one of those who will stay.”
