“We need to asses him”- Pochettino admits Chelsea could immediately loan out £23.2m summer arrival

Mauricio Pochettino will assess new signing Lesley Ugochukwu before deciding on a possible loan move

As quoted by a tweet from Fabrizio Romano, via Nizaar Kinsella, Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino talks about the possibility of sending new signing Lesley Ugochukwu on loan after assessing him.

The BBC has revealed that the Blues have signed the young French midfielder from Rennes in a deal worth around £23.2m. The player has signed a seven-year deal with the club.

It is also reported that Uogchukwu could be sent on loan to Chelsea’s sister club in France – RC Strasbourg. There might be a strategy of analysing his performances there until the end of next season.

Ugochukwu is a talented young midfielder who can play either as a central midfielder or a defensive midfielder. He was with the Rennes youth team from 2020 before making his senior debut there in the latter half of the 2020/21 season at the age of 17.

After going through the 2021/22 season as a fringe player, the 19-year-old got more opportunities last season. He made 35 appearances in all competitions, amassing close to 2000 minutes on the field (Transfermarkt).

The French U19 international is a physically strong player who does not mind going into duels and tackles. His aerial game is decent and his passing accuracy is at a good level at the moment. He averaged 87.6% pass accuracy in the Ligue 1 last season along with 1.4 completed tackles per game (Whoscored).

While it is all good and encouraging to sign a young midfield player and send him on loan for experience, let’s note that the Chelsea first-team squad is lacking in readymade midfielders. Only Enzo Fernandez and Conor Gallagher are senior players in that department at the moment.

Negotiations with Brighton for Moises Caicedo aren’t going anywhere. The club must focus on that and pursue that as a priority ahead of the start of the season.

More Chelsea News

• Chelsea have launched opening bid for Brighton & Hove Albion goalkeeper Robert Sanchez
• Moises Caicedo and his agents will ask Brighton & Hove Albion to decrease their asking price
• Following the club’s agreement to sign Axel Disasi, Trevoh Chalobah is ready to leave Chelsea

We are investing in the youth and the future, which is a good thing. But we have to understand we finished 12th last season and have to fix the team in a way that we are immediately able to resuscitate our standards and compete with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool. For that, we need quality, proven players, and we need them right now.