Chelsea: 10 British Youngsters Who Deserve Their Chance At Stamford Bridge

4. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (CM)

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to John Swift's progress at Chelsea will come from one of his own teammates. Like Swift, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is powerful, technically gifted and capable of grabbing a game by the scruff of the neck and beating it into submission. Swift is the more creative of the two, but Loftus-Cheek is an absolute powerhouse who carries such a big reputation around the club that he was rewarded with a £1.7m per year contract this summer. Rumoured to have been approached by Barcelona as a youngster, he combines athleticism and brute force - standing a frankly terrifying 6'3 - with enormous grace on the ball. Comparisons have been made to Michael Ballack, and not without good reason. He featured for half an hour in the 2012/13 post-season tour against Manchester City and dominated the game to such an extent that his distinguished opponents were reduced to kicking him off the field. The scariest part? He's still only 17. Despite that tender age, there have already been calls from a number of Chelsea fans for him to be fast-tracked into the first team squad. His name is often mentioned as a reason why the club's rumoured approaches for established players like Paul Pogba and Geoffrey Kondogbia (a name now out of the running thanks to Monaco's bottomless bank account) seemed unnecessary. Perhaps the most encouraging sign for Chelsea fans hoping to see Loftus-Cheek tearing the Premier League a new one in the next few years is that many of his most potent strengths are those typically favoured by manager José Mourinho. Whether he'll be given the chance to show them remains to be seen, but if any player on this list has everything in place for a long-term career with Chelsea, Loftus-Cheek is looking a very safe bet.