Chelsea targeting Premier League loan for Fikayo Tomori — report

Fikayo Tomori has been one of the candidates to replace the departed Gary Cahill this summer, but it looks like he will be losing out to Kurt Zouma in that regard. Both young players have been looking to take advantage of the changing sentiment at the club regarding young players returning from successful loans; however, with Kurt Zouma confirming that he prefers Chelsea over Everton, Tomori will probably have to bide his time for now.

This was always going to be the case — Tomori or Zouma — after David Luiz re-signed for two more years to keep Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen good company in the central defensive corps. While Tomori is “highly rated” by manager Frank Lampard, having worked together at Derby last season, where Tomori was voted the Player of the Season, for now, the preference would be to send the 21-year-old on a Premier League loan.

That’s the story from the Evening Standard, who add that there is interest from various clubs in the Premier League, the Bundesliga and the Primeira Liga in Portugal — although the only team mentioned by name are Burnley, who made a pass at a permanent transfer earlier this summer.

Either way, this is probably the best course of action for such a promising player. Maybe he can follow a pathway similar to Zouma, who is set to be re-integrated into the first-team after two successful seasons on loan, at Stoke City and Everton.