West Ham should try to sign Ruben Loftus-Cheek permanently
According to the Mirror, Maurizio Sarri has blocked West Ham’s January loan move for 22-year-old midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
The English international has started only three games for the Blues this season, twice in the Europa League and in the Carabao Cup win over Derby County. He scored a hat-trick in the Europa League game against BATE Borisov but that wasn’t enough for him to get a start in the Premier League. However, he did come on as a substitute and scored Chelsea’s fourth goal in the 4-0 drubbing of Burnley.
Loftus-Cheek was loaned out last former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte to Crystal Palace last season and his impressive displays on his loan stint convinced Gareth Southgate to take him to the World Cup.
Maurizio Sarri has preferred a 4-3-3 formation at Chelsea to support his free-flowing possession-based football. While N’Golo Kante and Jorginho has started in all the games, the likes of Loftus-Cheek, Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic have been left to compete for a single spot in midfield. Barkley’s scintillating form in recent weeks has convinced Sarri to give him the nod ahead of Kovacic for the Premier League games.
However, things haven’t quite changed for young Loftus-Cheek. He continues to warm the benches at Chelsea and it doesn’t look like the manager is too keen on giving him regular minutes in the Premier League. In fact, he was overlooked once again in Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace this week.
As far as West Ham are concerned, they should not be put off by Chelsea’s refusal to loan out their talented youngster.
As evident from their activity in the summer transfer window, the Hammers have the financial muscle to pull off mega-money transfers. Manuel Pellegrini brought as many as nine new players in the summer, including stalwarts like Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko. Hence, West ham should try to sign Ruben Loftus-Cheek on a permanent deal.
West Ham haven’t had the best of starts to their season but Pellegrini’s men have shown enough promise against the top six sides in the Premier League, coming away with victories over Everton and Manchester United and containing Chelsea to a goalless draw.
However, their campaign has been marred to a large extent by the long list of injuries. Recurrent injuries to some of the key players like Jack Wilshere, Yarmolenko, Arnautovic, Carlos Sanchez, Javier Hernandez and Andy Carroll haven’t allowed the manager to pick a settled eleven for all the games.
To put things into perspective, signing Loftus-Cheek on a permanent basis will be a massive boost for West Ham. A technically-gifted and tactically versatile central midfielder, the 22-year-old can play as an attacking midfielder, a defensive midfielder, winger and a supporting striker.
He is a player potential and West Ham are a club with a lot of heritage. In Manuel Pellegrini, West Ham have one of the best managers in the world who can bring the best out of any player.
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Chelsea do not have a good reputation for promoting youngsters and West Ham should use that to convince the youngster to shift bases. And they have the financial resources as well. Chelsea will slap a huge price tag to put them off but the Hammers should not hesitate to break the bank to sign him permanently.
