Patrick Bamford: Chelsea man happy for now being Middlesbrough's loan star

It’s a lot better than just sitting on Chelsea’s bench, the Championship Player of the Year tells Glenn Moore

Patrick Bamford has enjoyed a successful season on Teesside (Getty Images)

There is something odd about the Championship Player of the Year actually being owned by a Premier League club, but the recipient, Patrick Bamford, is not complaining, not when he looks at youth opportunities back at Stamford Bridge.

There is talk of teenager Dominic Solanke playing for Bamford’s parent club at the Emirates tomorrow as Chelsea showcase their youth system. We will see. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was given a big build-up, not least by Jose Mourinho, before a Champions League dead rubber in December. He got seven minutes. A month later he was an injury-time substitute, since then… nothing.

Bamford has been playing regularly, albeit 250 miles away in Middlesbrough. Distance should have lent enchantment for Chelsea’s management, since the 21-year-old has flourished on Teesside, scoring 17 goals in 37 matches as Boro chase a return to the top flight. He was elected Player of the Season by the men who this season have tried – and frequently failed – to devise a way to stop him scoring goals, the managers of Boro’s Championship rivals.

Bamford has technically been a Chelsea player since he joined from Nottingham Forest, for £1.5m, in January 2012. However, he is yet to play for them, having been loaned to Milton Keynes and Derby County before Boro.

Should he overcome an ankle injury to appear at Fulham this afternoon, he will have played in 109 matches on loan – and he thinks he is all the better for his travels.

“I’d advise every young player to go out on loan rather than stay [and play in the Under-21 development league],” says Bamford. “There’s a massive difference between playing Under-21 football and being on the bench at Chelsea, and playing every week in a league where you are playing for people’s livelihoods and helping to pay their mortgages.

“If you ask Karl Robinson, I have come on so much from when I started playing for him at Milton Keynes. I would tell most youngsters to play every week if they can. At my age you need to play.”

Part of the education is learning to mix it against gnarled old defenders, developing the physical edge, the “nastiness” Diego Costa has and Mourinho appears to want in his players. “I think I have that now,” says Bamford. “It does come with experience. If you play for managers like Karl Robinson, it’s about your development, but there are times when you have to stick up for yourself and let defenders know you are around when nobody is looking.

“The tempo in the Under-21 league is a lot slower, it is very technical and there is none of that nastiness; that is something you have to learn from playing in league games.”

Or the pressure. Last May Bamford played in the promotion play-off final at Wembley for Derby and, unless Watford or Bournemouth drop points, a return is on the cards.

While Bamford concentrates on helping Middlesbrough to promotion, at Stamford Bridge they are debating who he should play for next season, Chelsea or another Premier League side.

“Hopefully, I’ll be playing in the Premier League next season one way or another,” says Bamford. “I’d like to try and play at Chelsea, but I don’t want to spend next season sat on the bench – at this stage it’s important for my development that I play every week if possible. Where I go is up to the club, but I regard my long-term future being at Chelsea. Fingers crossed, I might be the man who saves [Mourinho] spending £30m.

“I’ve got to be patient, I’m still quite young. If I want to be a main striker at Chelsea, I need to get the chance to push people like [Didier] Drogba and [Loïc] Rémy and to see what I can learn off them.”

Drogba’s future is uncertain but Bamford observes: “If he goes, Chelsea could go out and buy another striker; if he stays for another year, I could learn from him.”

The ideal scenario might be Boro going up and Bamford staying at the Riverside for another season, not least because Middlesbrough’s manager, Aitor Karanka, is close to Mourinho, having been his assistant at Real Madrid.

Bamford says: “He always tells me when he’s been speaking to Jose – he doesn’t tell me what was said, he just smiles and says, ‘I’ve been talking to your boss today...’”

Chelsea have dozens of players out on loan, but keep tabs on them via former player Eddie Newton, now youth development manager. Newton, says Bamford, has been to see him and sends loan players DVDs with clips of recent matches that “tells us what we’re doing well and what we could be doing better”. He adds: “I don’t really speak to Jose during the season, but that’s probably for the best. It means I can focus on what I’m doing at Middlesbrough.”

That approach has worked very well so far. While the jury remains out on whether Bamford will be Chelsea’s Harry Kane, or another Romelu Lukaku, sold on at a profit, his future looks bright.