Roma manager Jose Mourinho will utilise Tammy Abraham’s links with Chelsea to help secure one of his January transfer targets, Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

According to II Romanista, as quoted by the Daily Star, Mourinho wants to use Abraham to help convince Loftus-Cheek about the prospect of leaving the European Champions in favour of joining them at Roma.

Mourinho is a big fan of the Cobham academy graduate, who has been playing consistently for Chelsea in recent weeks due to an injury crisis that has seen the three usual midfielders Chelsea employ there out with injury at various times of the season.

However, Loftus-Cheek surely knows that when Chelsea’s squad is fully fit he will be resigned to the bench, and this, along with any prospective Chelsea incomings in that position, could convince him to swap London for Rome.

Transfermarkt estimate Loftus-Cheek’s value to be around £16.2m, less than half of what Abraham joined for. But if Loftus-Cheek could be brought in for around this value then Roma may look to compare him to how well the Abraham deal has gone and may be even more likely to go for it considering these factors.

Abraham left Chelsea in the summer for £34m and has so far scored 12 goals in 23 games (excluding qualifiers) and also provided three assists. After a rocky October, the former Chelsea striker has hit a good vein of form since the start of November, contributing to nine goals in as many appearances in Serie A and the Europa Conference League.

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