Chelsea youngster Oriol Romeu has been granted a loan move back to his native Spain, where Valencia have offered the defensive midfielder an opportunity to get his career back on track with regular first team football at the club.

Jose Mourinho had stated that he was happy with the transfer business conducted by the club so far, which included three players walking through the door at Stamford Bridge. Andre Schurrle has signed for the Blues from Bayer Leverkusen, as an attacker in prime form domestically. Marco van Ginkel, who was signed from Dutch side Vitesse Arnheim, is a steady midfielder with qualities similar to Frank Lampard. Last but not the least, Mark Schwarzer has signed from Fulham after Maarten Sketelenburg took over the number one jersey for next season.

This leaves Mourinho with the challenging task of making decisions on the futures of the existing squad. Young players like Josh McEachran and Romeu have had to be content with a place on the bench, with the club continually strengthening with world class players with proven experience.

Romeu is a defensive midfielder who began his youth career in Spain. The 21-year old was a youth academy product of Espanyol in 2001, and spent years developing as a youngster. Four years into his time at the club, Romeu gained recognition from Barcelona, who gave him the opportunity to train at their popular youth academy in 2004. Into his time at the Nou Camp, Romeu could not make the big break into the Barcelona senior squad, and was instead handed a professional contract with Barcelona ‘B’. The move worked, and he was brought into the Barcelona senior squad in 2010, but made just one Liga BBVA appearance for the season. Chelsea were next to give an opportunity to the youngster, and Romeu played 22 times for the senior squad at Stamford Bridge, before being sidelined for the entirety of last season due to injury.

With Romeu not in the picture for this season, Mourinho is reportedly looking at AS Roma legend Danielle De Rossi as a potential signing for the summer, and the Italian would add much needed stability to the Chelsea midfield.