Kenneth Omeruo deserves better than Chelsea stasis

There is something cruel about the fact that, for two of London’s biggest clubs, their longest-serving players are considered surplus to requirements.

Carl Jenkinson, a boyhood Arsenal fan, at one time looked like the future of the club at right-back, and was even capped by England, but now has a long-term contract, which runs out next year, to thank for his longevity in North London.

For Kenneth Omeruo, however, there have never been any pretensions about his influence, or lack thereof, at Chelsea.

On the books of the Blues, the 25-year-old has shown promise, and then shone, at two Africa Cups of Nations and two World Cups.

Just last month in Egypt, he was the most consistent defensive performer for Nigeria as the Super Eagles advanced to the semi-final of the 2019 Afcon, and was one of the standout defenders period. In that span, he has played zero competitive minutes for his parent club, and has been out on seven separate loans; two of those spells were returns.

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Some have been more productive than others; he started only about one in three games at Middlesbrough in 2014/15, for instance, but the latest, a season spent in La Liga with Leganes, seemed to bring the very best out of Omeruo, while producing two somewhat tangential benefits.

For one, the player is now aware of his own ability to thrive in a top European league, a fact he could no longer take for granted, or as a matter of course, given the short shrift he has gotten at Stamford Bridge.

It is the downside of the constant loan cycle: it can abrade the confidence of young players, making them feel unwanted; in Chelsea’s case, merely pawns.

In that sense, last season was a crucial injection of life-giving affirmation, breathing health into a wheezing, frail career that was threatened to dissolve into nothing.

Even more importantly, it has created a market for the player, a means by which he can finally bring his yearly summer Groundhog Day to an end.

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French side Amiens had an offer for him turned down on Tuesday, and Leganes continue to negotiate an agreeable transfer fee to make his loan stay a permanent one.

Clearly, he made a big impact on Mauricio Pellegrino, the Argentine who, by the player’s own account, has been equal parts coach and whisperer, insisting on Omeruo’s own innate ability. It is no surprise, then, that a return to Spain is his stated preference.

The irony in all of this, of course, is that if there ever was a moment all those loans were building to, it should be this precise point in time.

In the midst of a transfer ban – aptly incurred for bringing in young players as fodder for their churning, belching loan machine – with a young, inexperienced manager forced to institute a new democracy, and with Omeruo at both his physical peak and, as evidenced by the last 12 months, at the height of his powers, there still is no room for the second most-capped international at Stamford Bridge to even audition.

Christopher Lee

It is a jarring thought: even though the prospect of displacing either of David Luiz or Antonio Rudiger was always going to be remote, how much further down should Chelsea have had to go to get to Omeruo?

Even Fikayo Tomori, impressive as he was in the Championship, seems to be sticking around.

The positive, if it can be construed as one, is that this eliminates any residual doubt in the mind of the player as to what he needs to do.

To wait around would be to continue to court disappointment, and so a swift break would, without a doubt, be best.