‘Around that time secretly’: 27-year-old says he was speaking to defender about leaving Chelsea late last term

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Ruben Loftus-Cheek has admitted that he secretly started asking Fikayo Tomori about AC Milan before the end of last season ahead of sealing his switch from Chelsea.

Loftus-Cheek was speaking to The Times about the decision to leave Stamford Bridge after almost two decades on the Blues’ books.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek became one of the latest players to swap the Premier League for Serie A this summer. The 27-year-old joined the Rossoneri in a deal which could ultimately be worth £17 million – as reported by the Evening Standard.

It appeared to be a move which suited all parties. Unfortunately, Loftus-Cheek was never quite able to realise the frightening potential he showed when he emerged into the first-team fold.

Loftus-Cheek spoke to Tomori about Milan move last season

And it seems that the England international was giving the decision over his future some serious thought some time before he did indeed seal the move to Milan.

Chelsea faced the club in the Champions League group-stages last year. And it seems that he was very intrigued by a move to San Siro by the time the season was starting to edge towards its conclusion.

“There were a few bits when we played Milan in the Champions League,” he told The Times. “I never thought much of it at the time. I was focused on what we were doing. We were doing quite well under Graham Potter. You don’t want to look too far into the future but towards the end of the season we weren’t doing as well. Things changed quite a lot and that was the point I was open to seeing if my future might change. I started asking Fikayo around that time, secretly, what it was like.”

It is a shame that Loftus-Cheek was never quite able to take that next step. He actually made more appearances in the Premier League last season than in any other campaign he spent with the Blues.

But it obviously was a pretty miserable time to be a Chelsea fan. In fact, it is hard to imagine that there are any players from last season’s squad who will remember the campaign at all fondly.

Tomori has certainly seen his stock rise since moving to Milan. And Loftus-Cheek will be hoping that he can follow in his footsteps following his own switch from Chelsea.