He was part of Chelsea's pre-season tour of the United States in Summer 2006 and started the season again with a place on the bench; in the 2006 Community Shield against Liverpool and the first two Premier League games of the 2006–07 season against Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers. Despite this, it would be over two years before he would play a competitive game for the "Blues", a fact that led him to admit he may need to move on for the sake of his career.