Chelsea are impressed by ‘great’ youngster in pre-season, but he must be loaned if one thing happens

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There’s a Chelsea youngster on the current pre-season tour really catching the eye in a positive way, but he should still be sent out on loan next season if one things happens this summer.

Chelsea’s pre-season trip to the United States has got off to a bit of a slow start, drawing with Wrexham and losing to Celtic. However, so much is about building fitness in these opening friendly matches, plus new Blues head coach Enzo Maresca is trying to get across his ideas and football philosophy.

Mauricio Pochettino’s time at Chelsea, which only lasted a season, did include plenty of success for young players before his summer exit was mutually agreed.

When you look at the Blues squad inherited by Maresca, it looks like there’s a good chance for him to pick up the baton and keep growing this youthful group. There’s been a few more fresh faces added in the transfer window, too.

• READ MORE: How Enzo Maresca impressed Chelsea during the interview process with his knowledge on both the club’s first team and academy squads

Chelsea youngster Marc Guiu is impressing

While there’s not been a great deal to get excited about so far in pre season, the emergence of summer signing Marc Guiu is certainly one exception.

The Blues paid just £5m (BBC) in July to sign Guiu from Barcelona. On paper, the deal looked an exciting one because the young 18-year-old talent played seven first-team matches for Barcelona last season after coming through their academy.

He’s started both games against Wrexham and Celtic so far for Chelsea, showing some serious potential as a busy No 9 leading the line. During an interview with Sport, Marc Cucurella has labelled Guiu a “great player”.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano recently claimed on his YouTube channel that Chelsea are very happy with Guiu so far. On top of that, speaking recently via Football.London, Maresca suggested Guiu will be in the first team next season.

If Chelsea make no more signings in this window, Guiu deserves a chance in the senior squad competing with Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nknku for the striker position. There should certainly be enough games to share because of domestic and European competitions.

However, the Blues are still linked in the transfer rumour mill with making a marquee signing in attack.

Marc Guiu should be loaned out if Victor Osimhen joins

Guiu looks strong enough and ready to compete at first-team level, so the worst thing Chelsea could do next year is stall his progress by making him sit on the bench for all of next season.

Now that Napoli striker Victor Osimhen is strongly linked with the Blues, there should be a contingency plan to get Guiu out on loan for the 2024/25 campaign if he joins.

The Athletic’s David Ornstein has reported that Chelsea are talking with Napoli about signing Osimhen. The discussions centre around the 25-year-old Napoli frontman joining Chelsea on loan with an option to buy, while Romelu Lukaku could move in the opposite direction to Naples.

Osimhen is surely coming to Chelsea to play a key role if it happens because he’s a proven goalscorer, netting 76 times in 133 matches for Italian giants Napoli. Therefore, Guiu’s best path is a loan spell, preferably in English football, if Osimhen arrives in West London.