Thought this was interesting by Sam Wallace

Loftus-Cheek must act to rescue his drifting career

England midfielder has to demand clarity over Chelsea future or seek a permanent move
It feels like the annual crisis in the career of Ruben Loftus-Cheek is approaching fast, one of the English game’s most promising talents edging towards his mid-twenties and still caught in the unpredictable weather system of a club who neither want him to leave nor will play him regularly.
The Loftus-Cheek story is one that is entwined with the shifting fortunes of Chelsea, the parent club that over-parents in all but where it matters most: granting their prodigal son the independence he craves on the pitch.
His performances have scarcely merited it in recent weeks but then it is hard to make an impression when, at 23, he is still at the level of substitute performances in a disjointed team, a replacement for those who have been shunted ahead of him.
Loftus-Cheek will not get his start against Malmo tonight in the Europa League, ruled out with a persistent back problem, but it may come on Monday against Manchester United in the FA Cup. Even so, there is no certainty on that score and you wonder when the penny will drop that Loftus-Cheek has to leave. Last summer he was a starter in the England team who faced Panama in Russia when Dele Alli was injured and, from the core of 15 players whom Gareth Southgate relied upon, is the only one who has gone backwards this season.
Where now? The consensus is that he should have left last summer and on a permanent deal, not just in pursuit of another loan. His best football came at Crystal Palace last season when he started 22 league games, despite injuries. When Loftus-Cheek was away from Chelsea and no longer treated like the schoolboy prodigy, he flourished when fit and that should have convinced him to be decisive. Last summer, Chelsea were discussing the possibility of another loan for him this season, and then there was the delay over Maurizio Sarri’s appointment. In the end, no clear guidance was given. This season, he has started nine league games under Sarri.
The summer should have been the moment that Loftus-Cheek demanded clarity and, with no guarantees forthcoming, asked the club to go. But he is an easy-going young man, with a contract until 2021 and he stayed. He did not start a club game until the Europa League group match against Vidi on Oct 4. The back problem that has plagued him over the past two years can be an issue but not nearly as much as the uncertainty over whether he will play or not.
In his run of games for Palace last season he played his way into the England squad. Although he has in the past been an inconsistent performer, in games and in training, it has been the absence of a run of matches this season that has prevented him from establishing himself. Once again there are others thrust ahead of him. Ross Barkley has been fit for the first time since his move a year go and Mateo Kovacic – on loan from Real Madrid – shoehorned into the team for little return.
Chelsea will do what Chelsea do. It is up to a player to take decisive action. One can understand why Callum Hudson-Odoi has been so keen on a move to Bayern Munich when the most talented player before him to come out of the Chelsea academy is 23 and treading water. It is hard to predict the future at Chelsea – the likely manager, the possible incoming players – but a footballer can make choices about his own future.
The @chelseayouth Twitter feed, which chronicles the fortunes of the club’s academy players, tweeted a video yesterday of a goal scored by Chelsea Under-18s in September 2014 in a Uefa Youth League game against their counterparts from Schalke. In it, Loftus-Cheek wins the ball in his own penalty area and drives forward, going past six opponents in a magnificent run of skill, power and speed. He spreads it left to Charly Musonda and his cross finds Dominic Solanke who scores at the back post. Chelsea triumphed 4-1 and went on to win the competition that season, but what, @chelseayouth asks, of the Schalke players?
Leroy Sane was playing in that game and is now a first-choice fixture with Manchester City, with whom he has won the Premier League. Also in the side was Thilo Kehrer, who played right-back for Paris St-Germain against Manchester United on Tuesday. Only two from the Schalke XI remain at the club, in the under-23s side, and the rest have taken a step downwards.
At Chelsea, only three from the XI have left, including Solanke. Only Loftus-Cheek and Andreas Christensen are Chelsea first-team squad members. Both are more crucial for their national teams than their club.
Sane already had 57 Bundesliga appearances for Schalke when City signed him in the summer of 2016 aged 20. Kehrer had 59 when he joined PSG last summer at 21. By contrast Loftus-Cheek, born in the same month as Sane, has 53 league appearances in total for Chelsea (plus 25 for Palace). All three are 1996-born, Kehrer eight months younger than the other two. Solanke saw the writing on the wall a lot earlier at Chelsea and although moving to Liverpool proved a false start for him, at least he tried to seek out first-team football, and has done so again with the move to Bournemouth.
Loftus-Cheek could gamble that Sarri goes this summer and in his place comes Lampard and Jody Morris, who would be much better suited to developing Chelsea’s young players.
Or he could stop trying to second-guess the club and strike out elsewhere. It is not too late yet

Cheers,
Parrot

Mr Cadbury's Parrot says "Hello"

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Ruben is best
In the red and the blue

Mr Cadbury's Parrot says "Hello"