Trevoh Chalobah deserves his chance at Chelsea, now, not later

Once upon a time, Romelu Lukaku had proven himself for Chelsea. After two great seasons on loan at West Brom and Everton, he was at the point where he deserved his shot with the Blues. It didn’t come. Instead, Chelsea pursued and ultimately signed Diego Costa. Lukaku, feeling mistreated, opted to leave permanently.

It’s not an uncommon story at Chelsea. Youth players are rarely given the same benefit of the doubt as players from elsewhere. They are told their chance will come “later” or that they “are not ready”. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as the chance never comes. Another, important issue, is how often Chelsea fails to learn from these mistakes without needing to. Look no further than Tino Livramento leaving the same summer the Achraf Hakimi rumor broke. He saw the writing on the wall that his chance would always be deferred.

Trevoh Chalobah deserves his chance at Chelsea now, not later. He’s shown up throughout preseason and a loan is only pushing him away from the club. If Chelsea needs a centerback, they don’t need to spend over 70 million for one when they have one in house right now.

Chalobah has arguably been the breakout star of preseason. Thomas Tuchel has relied on him in both roles of the back three and he’s done exceptional at both. It is a testament to Tuchel’s appreciation that Chalobah was given the start in the Super Cup. Not only that, but he went the distance in it.

Chalobah spent last season earning rave reviews at Lorient in Ligue 1. He primarily played as a centerback, which is how Tuchel seems to view him, but he has a ton of minutes in midfield under his belt as well. So long as Chelsea doesn’t sign another midfielder, that is a whole in the squad that very much needs filled before Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, and N’Golo Kante are run into the ground.

That flexibility for Chalobah is also why it doesn’t have to be Jules Kounde or Chalobah for next season. It can very much be both, though the needle will need to be carefully threaded. The centerbacks next season currently comprise of Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger, Kurt Zouma, and Chalobah.

Six is the most the team will need so Kounde coming in would mean someone would have to come out. That was always assumed to be Zouma, but it was never clear if Chalobah would stay or not. If he does, both he and Kounde will need to get enough minutes to justify staying at/coming to the club. Chalobah’s flexibility will help him so long as the club doesn’t sign a midfielder. The multiple contract issues might help as well if they come to a head quickly.

Regardless, Chalobah is not a player that needs further development to be ready for Chelsea. He’s ready now. Another loan just pushes him away for another year and runs the risk of him taking Lukaku or Livramento’s idea of leaving. Though the Kounde arrival (if it ever happens) may make it trickier, Chalobah still deserves to stay.

The club is only hurting themselves if they convince themselves he still needs more time to develop. “He’s not ready” has always been a code for “we’ll never see him as ready”.