Chelsea flag waves at Stamford Bridge.

Ex-Blue makes shock admission about what he would’ve done if he had his time at the club again

Ruben Loftus-Cheek revealed if he had his time again he would have left Chelsea at 15 or 16 to go and play regular football.

The 28-year-old came through the ranks at Chelsea and had loan spells with Crystal Palace and Fulham during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Loftus-Cheek made 155 appearances for his boyhood club, scoring 13 goals and providing 17 assists, whilst he was part of two Premier League winning squads and won the Europa League and the Uefa Super Cup.

Loftus-Cheek reveals he should have Chelsea at 15 or 16

The midfielder, joined Chelsea at the age of eight and left for Italian giants AC Milan last summer, who have a strong contingent of former Chelsea players in Fikayo Tomori, Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham.

Loftus-Cheek seems to have settled into life well in Italy and has performed well for AC Milan, scoring ten goals in 43 appearances for the club to date.

The Chelsea academy graduate took time out to discuss the clubs’s academy in a recent interview and made a shock revelation about what he wishes he had done differently.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek at Stamford Bridge.
Loftus-Cheek swapped Chelsea for AC Milan last summer.

“I think if you’re a youngster, seven or eight years old, and you’ve signed with Chelsea, fantastic because it’s a great academy and you’ll learn how to play football and you’ll develop your skills there, and a great coach is coaching you,” he told The Times. 

“But it gets to a point, maybe at 15, 16, where you’re getting to that stage where it’s youth-team football and you might want to start thinking about going and playing somewhere else.

“Because it’s very difficult now to just go straight through, and the best way to develop is by playing games and playing men’s football.

“And it’s easier to do that somewhere else at a lower club. And I feel like that’s what I missed out on, I think.”

Loftus-Cheek also revealed if he had his time again he would have left Chelsea at 15 or 16 which is surprising given the amount of opportunities and appearances he ended up making for the Blues.

Youngsters do get an opportunity at Chelsea with the likes of Reece James and Levi Colwill part of the first team set-up but it appears to be harder to break through at the moment and the club are happy to go and spend millions on 16 and 17 year olds.

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