Could Oriol Romeu Be Heading Back To Barcelona?

With the arrival of Barcelona in London over the weekend, there will for a renewed focus on the contract status of Oriol Romeu.

Chelsea bought Romeu for £4.3million during the summer, and rumors persist that Barcelona inserted a “buy-back” clause in the contract that will allow them to take Romeu back to the Nou Camp this summer.

Romeu is one of the best young talents in Europe and has made 15 starts for Chelsea this summer. But most of those starts took place early in the season, and as the games have become more important, Romeu has disappeared from the Chelsea line-up as first AVB and now Di Matteo have went with experience.

Romeu’s last appearance was as a late substitute in the 3-3 draw with Manchester United in February, his last start at the end of January.

The foursome of Romeu, McEachran, Bertrand and Sturridge were supposed to be the future of Chelsea. The next generation to take over from Terry, Cole, Lampard and Drogba.

Sturridge has played the most this season, but even his playing time has decreased in recent weeks, while McEachran sits on the bench watching games at Swansea. Bertrand is getting some playing time now, but as soon as Ashley Cole gets fit, he will drop back to watching from the sidelines.

And that is the dilemma facing Chelsea managers. They understand that they should be giving Romeu, McEachran, Bertrand and Sturridge more playing time. But they also know that if they don’t win at least one trophy and finish in the top four that they will get fired. So they naturally revert to using older, experienced players as nobody can second guess them for going with experience.