Lukaku and De Bruyne to be given their chance at Stamford Bridge.
Returning manager Jose Mourinho is finally going to give youngsters Romelu Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne and Tomas Kalas their chance at Chelsea after years out on-loan.
All three spent the 2012/13 season away from Stamford Bridge getting first team experience with clubs around Europe, but Mourinho thinks they’re ready to be Blues players now.
“They are good players with a very good value in the market and we have these players this season for free, after an investment that the club did before,” the 50-year-old told the club’s website.
“After the development of the players on loan it is the right moment for them to be back.
“They are very young with space to develop, they will be better year after year and I can imagine in five years they are much better than today – but what they have today is more than enough to belong to this squad.”
This will come as good news for the trio, particularly Belgian internationals Lukaku and De Bruyne who will want to be impressing their national manager during a World Cup year.
Both players did well during loan spells with West Bromwich Albion and Werder Bremen and had been linked with permanent transfers away from west London this year, if Mourinho was not prepared to give them their chance.
Lukaku scored 17 Premier League goals during his time at West Brom and looked comfortable playing against the top sides in the division – netting a hat-trick against Manchester United on the final day of the season.
Similarly De Bruyne managed 10 goals and 10 assists in 34 matches for the Bundesliga side and between the pair they have 34 caps for Belgium.
Kalas meanwhile has spent the past two years on-loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, playing alongside one of Chelsea’s latest signings Marco Van Ginkel.
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