Reuben Loftus-Cheek’s father, Trevor, has suggested his son would have made more senior appearances with a manager like Mauricio Pochettino.
The Chelsea midfielder impressed on his England debut against Germany last week, leading to suggestions he is good enough to be playing for the champions.
Loftus-Cheek is currently on loan at bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace, and his father believes the 21-year-old has been repeatedly held back at Chelsea.
“Jose Mourinho held him back. He should have been playing,” Trevor told The Mail.
“Everyone behind the scenes was asking: ‘why isn’t he playing?’ If Ruben was playing for Mauricio Pochettino, he’d have 70, 80, 90 first team appearances by now.”
Last week, Loftus-Cheek rejected comparisons to Dele Alli.
“I definitely don’t want to be compared with Dele anymore. Everyone’s journey is different in football, no-one’s the same,” he said.
“We are completely different players. To compare players at different stages in their career shouldn’t happen.”
If Loftus-Cheek was a Tottenham player, I’m fairly confident he’d have made plenty of first team appearances by now.