5 Players who could flourish at Chelsea due to their transfer ban

#3 Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been criminally underused by Chelsea this season

There probably aren’t many other players who are finding 2018/19 as frustrating as Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Despite his talents being talked about for years, the midfielder was never really given a chance at first team football at Chelsea, and so in 2017/18 he made a loan move to Crystal Palace, where he was a huge success – he appeared in 24 Premier League games, scored 2 goals and made 4 assists.

Loftus-Cheek’s form was so good that he made it into England’s 2018 World Cup squad and even appeared on a number of occasions in the tournament, but despite being promised more first-team football at Chelsea this season, he’s still struggled for minutes and has only started in 9 games across all competitions.

When he has appeared though, he’s looked excellent – he’s scored 3 Premier League goals despite only appearing for 374 minutes, and he notably scored a hat-trick in the Europa League against BATE Borisov in October. Quite why he hasn’t been given more playing time is anyone’s guess really, given his dribbling skills, power and passing range seem like attributes that would add a lot to the Blues’ game.

Next season though – with Mateo Kovacic’s loan ending and Chelsea being unable to bring in any new talent – Loftus-Cheek will surely be given more opportunities to play. And as we saw during his time at Crystal Palace last season, when he’s given an extended run of games, he thrives – surely this wouldn’t be any different at Stamford Bridge.