Chelsea: Kenneth Omeruo hits two milestones, should be next for a transfer

Kenneth Omeruo scored his first international goal for Nigeria in the same week he is about to become Chelsea’s longest-serving loanee. The Blues hopefully have him in line for a permanent transfer this summer.

Chelsea are starting to the summer with a unusual clear-out of the loan army. Fankaty Dabo transferred to Coventry City. Ola Aina left for Torino, who activated the buy clause in his 2018/19 loan deal. The Blues sold Jay Dasilva to Bristol City, where he excelled on loan last year along with Tomas Kalas, whose permanent departure to Ashton Gate is imminent. Once Kalas is fully a Robin, Kenneth Omeruo will ascend to the throne as Chelsea’s longest-serving loanee.

Unlike Kalas, though, Omeruo has never pulled on a Chelsea shirt, at least not at the senior level. In a half-season at Stamford Bridge between loans, Omeuro played 65 minutes in one game for the U21 team. Some of his teammates in that game from November 2013 include Dabo, Aina, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathan Ake and other loan army stand-by’s Isaiah Brown and Lewis Baker.

Overall, Omeruo has had 185 first-team appearances since signing with the Blues, spread out across nine competitions in four countries. Other than his one and a half seasons at Middlesbrough, he has had at least 25 league starts in each season. Middlesbrough was also his only season out of the first tier, as his other loans had him in the Turkish Super Lig (with two different teams), the Eredivisie and La Liga.

At Leganes this past season, Omeruo was in the regular starting XI. He helped Leganes have a margin of safety from the relegation zone for the first time since they came up in 2015/16.

Leganes finished 13th in La Liga, but conceded the fifth fewest goals. Only Atletico Madrid, Getafe, Valencia and Barcelona – all top-five teams – had a better defensive record.

Omeruo’s transfer value jumped over two-fold this season and he is entering the last year of his contract. Chelsea should take advantage of the opportunity to sell him as part of their housecleaning of long-term loanees this summer.

The speculation around Kurt Zouma’s future should spell the end for any other centreback in the system over age 23.

Zouma is the most experienced and highly rated centreback beyond those who played for the Blues last season, and is by far best positioned to make the jump from the loan system to the first team. However, that progression is still uncertain, with much of the decision pending on whether Frank Lampard decides to use a two- or three-centreback system, and how the availability of wingbacks and fullbacks will affect the centreback depth chart (that is to say, what will Cesar Azpilicueta be doing, and how does that figure into the iterative decision process between a four-man and three-man back line).

Omeruo, like Tomas Kalas, is in his mid-20s and not within reach of Kurt Zouma in the depth chart, which means he and Chelsea should part ways on the best terms possible. Nigerian media reported at the end of the season that Chelsea and Leganes were about £1.8 million apart on Omeruo’s transfer.

Whatever Chelsea end up receiving for him, it will be several multiples of what they paid for him. Extended quibbling is not worth the risk of losing him on a free transfer next summer.

Even without FIFA’s proposed foolishness limiting the number of players on loan, the Blues are taking some overdue action to move loanees into forever homes.

While the Ola Aina and Jay Dasilva transfers may come back to bite them, they can afford to clear out a few other positions and let centrebacks like Kalas and Omeruo take the next step in their careers.