Chelsea loanee Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s father has heaped huge praise on Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino and claimed that his son would have been a first-team regular under his guidance.
The 21-year-old produced an impressive in his first ever senior appearance for the England national team on Friday in the 0-0 draw against world champions Germany at Wembley Stadium.
Despite spending more than a decade at Stamford Bridge, the midfielder has only made 32 appearances for the Chelsea first-team.
In an attempt to enjoy more minutes in the Premier League, Loftus-Cheek secured a loan move to Crystal Palace in the summer and he has already shown moments of quality in his short time at the club.
Current Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho was the man in charge at Stamford Bridge when Loftus-Cheek was coming through the ranks and he rarely gave the youngster the opportunity to perform at the highest level.
After his stellar international display, the player’s father Trevor is convinced that Spurs boss Pochettino would have done a better job with his son than Mourinho managed at Chelsea.
“Jose Mourinho held him back,” he told the Daily Mail.
“He should have been playing. Everyone behind the scenes was asking: ‘why isn’t he playing?’
“If Ruben was playing for Mauricio Pochettino, he’d have 70, 80, 90 first team appearances by now.”
OPINION
Loftus-Cheek’s father is completely spot on with his assessment. Throughout his career, Mourinho has failed to put his faith in youth which has come back and haunt him with the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Mohamed Salah and Romelu Lukaku the first names that come to mind. The Portuguese appears to be doing the exact same at Old Trafford with defender Luke Shaw struggling to get game time and forward Anthony Martial failing to get a regular place in the starting line-up despite his fine form. Pochettino has demonstrated during his reign in England that he is willing to allow young players to express themselves and as a result, the majority of them will be starters for the national team in Russia next year.