Chelsea’s Romeu eyeing Stuttgart stay
Chelsea midfielder Oriol Romeu is refusing to rule out a permanent move to Stuttgart despite signing a new contract at Stamford Bridge last summer.
Romeu’s Chelsea deal runs until 2017 but he was farmed out on loan to Valencia last season and is now temporarily at Stuttgart in the Bundesliga after struggling to hold down a first-team spot in the Premier League.
“My main objective is to improve my game and I think I can still improve a lot,” Romeu, who signed for Chelsea from Barcelona in 2011, told bundesliga.com. “The Bundesliga is a good league to grow and to become a better player.
“We’ll see what happens, but now I’m focused on the present and helping the team. I don’t know what will happen in the next few years but I will never say no to staying in Stuttgart because they have treated me amazingly so far and I’m really happy here,” he concluded.
Romeu, a defensive midfielder, faces stiff competition to break into Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea side. He was seen as a rising star when he first joined the club and looked more than capable of following players such as Claude Makelele and John Obi Mikel as the holding player in front of the defence.
However, a cruciate ligament injury in December 2012 halted his progress and he has yet to find a way back into favour at the club and looked set to join Valencia permanently last season after admitting he was also open to a move there.
Romeu is only 23 but his broad European experience gives him an interesting perspective on the game in different countries. “The Spanish league is a bit slower and more technical,” he said. “In England and Germany everything is quicker and more physical. Counter attacks are something you see much more of in those two leagues. Those are the main differences for me.
“The [German] league is growing, and has grown a lot in the last few years. That’s why people are coming here from other countries, not only from Spain. On television you can see that the stadiums are always full and the atmosphere is huge and really enjoyable, so for a player to come here and play it’s an honour.”
Stuttgart’s struggles in the league have not put Romeu off. They sit third from bottom in the German standings, having won just one of their seven matches but the Spaniard remains optimistic.
“I’m trying to settle in as quickly as I can,” Romeu said . “I’ve been involved in every game so I’m really happy about that. But realistically I would like the team to be in a better position. We’ve got a good squad so we have the potential to improve and I hope we can do that soon.
“Of course we all want to be up there fighting for better positions but it’s not easy and right now we’re third from bottom. We have to improve because the team is better than our results have shown so far.
“In the past I was in teams that were always in the top five or six. Right now we’re not in those places but I think we can, and have to be, much better. The main thing is to trust in ourselves.”
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