AC Milan star reveals Chelsea transfer regret ahead of Liverpool showdown | OneFootball

AC Milan midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek admits he wishes he had left Chelsea as a teenager.

The England international made 155 appearances in all competitions for the Blues after joining the club at ag eight and coming through the academy at Cobham.

But those appearance were spread out over a nine-year period, during which he struggled to establish himself as a regular starter and spent two seasons out on loan with Crystal Palace and Fulham.

Now 28, Loftus-Cheek is a key player for Milan having joined the Rossoneri for a £17.2m transfer fee in 2023. He scored six goals for the Serie A outfit last season and has started in all four of their league matches so far this term.

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AC Milan star Loftus-Cheek on his Chelsea transfer regret

This week he reflected on the difficulties of breaking into the first team as a youngster as he prepares to face Liverpool at the San Siro in the Champions League on Tuesday.

“I think sometimes when you have a homegrown player coming through, if you’re at a club that has the means to go and buy a fully-fledged player in their prime to bring in for millions, then the club wants to win and I think it’s easy to do that for them rather than to play a home-grown player,” he told The Times.

“Being at Chelsea coming through, that was the case. It was very difficult to play a lot of football. Even though you’re very talented, Chelsea can bring in another player who’s in their prime, just ready to go for millions. It is difficult as a young player coming through. But I think if the club has a way of liking and pushing home-grown players through, I think it can be easy.”

Loftus-Cheek still thinks Chelsea’s academy is a great place for young players to learn their trade, but advises prospects to give serious consideration to moving elsewhere in their mid-teens to have a better chance of playing senior football.

“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,” he said.

“And a great coach is coaching you. 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.

“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 knows Liverpool will pose a tough test for Milan when the two sides meet in Europe this week.

“When you have good players on the pitch and they’ve played together for a while and had success and had experience, they can bring that together straight away,” he said. “I’m not surprised they just got off on the right foot.”

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