Marco van Ginkel sums up his future at Chelsea: “Everything is negotiable”
By George Perry
Marco van Ginkel and PSV Eindhoven’s chairman both spoke about the Chelsea loanee’s future this week. Together, they offer zero insight into what next year holds for the oft-injured midfielder.
At any other club, Marco van Ginkel would lead the way for most number of loan spells. At Chelsea, he is barely above average with one loan to AC Milan, one to Stoke City and two to PSV Eindhoven. As he concludes another strong season in his home country, he still has no clear idea where he will play next season.
Neither does PSV Eindhoven. PSV’s chairman would purchase van Ginkel if he could, but apparently Chelsea want to exercise their options first.
"We are keen to keep Marco at the club. Both a loan deal or a permanent move could be an option. We tried to bring him in on an 18-month loan deal in January, but Chelsea told us they wanted to re-evaluate his situation during the summer. – Daily Mail"
On the surface this is an encouraging sign. However, van Ginkel spent the 2014/15 pre-season training with the squad before going to Serie A for a season. Every other spell he has spent at Chelsea have been to recover from injury with the U-23’s. Since he is now 25 years old, an additional pre-season trial will likely be – and should be – his final make-or-break opportunity.
Chelsea have done their usual negligent job keeping their loanees informed of their plans. Van Ginkel recently weighed in on his future. He did not give the usual nondescript, non-committal statements about wanting to play more and do right by his club. He honestly does not know what comes next.
"I do not quite know what my future looks like, but it will be clear in the coming days. Everything is negotiable, but I do not really think about it yet.We will have to wait for the coming period. There are several parties – myself, Chelsea, I do not know what they want. – Inside Futbol"
Marco van Ginkel’s career with Chelsea is sadly similar to Loic Remy’s. Every time van Ginkel comes close to being a full Blue, he suffers another injury. That sends him to the reserve squad until he is fit enough to go on loan. Van Ginkel has at least been more fortunate than Remy in having several strong seasons away from Chelsea.
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Van Ginkel’s window for ascending to Chelsea’s first team is almost surely closed. The combination of age, susceptibility to injury and lack of Premier League experience (which, obviously, is Chelsea’s fault) all cut against him. He would have a nearly impossible task breaking into Chelsea’s current squad.
The best hope for van Ginkel would be if Chelsea sell both Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas this summer. Matic is a strong possibility to leave, but Fabregas will almost surely stay. But even if those two starting XI regulars leave, van Ginkel still may need Ruben Loftus-Cheek to go on loan to open a place in the squad. And if the Blues acquire Marco Verratti or another high-price midfielder this summer, van Ginkel will be too far down the depth chart to hope to catch up.
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Chelsea kept van Ginkel at arm’s length long enough to keep him there. As with many of the other senior members of the loan army, Chelsea should either bring him home for good or sell him so he can find stability in his career. The latter is the likely option.