Chelsea Football Club‘s transfer activity in this window will be highlighted by the capture of former Arsenal maestro Cesc Fabregas and the much needed Diego Costa. Sneaking Loic Remy from Arsenal’s grasp was also a topping of the cake. However, on inspecting closely, neither of these moves trump the new policy that the club has taken to keep loaning out promising players all across the globe so they can get first team experience. While each team decides to loan out 5-6 of their promising talents to places where their progress can be monitored, Chelsea sent out a whooping 26 of its talents to different parts of the world. And if you look closely at the players sent out, these aren’t just players whom Chelsea might look to offload sooner or later. Atleast 70% of these players seem to be in the club’s long term plans. Ofcourse there are exceptions in the form of Torres and Marin, and even Moses to some extent, who are just being moved around to save the club’s wage bills.
Let’s have a look at these players who were a part of Chelsea’s mega loan distribution this summer.
1) England
The former Porto man is expected to be granted sufficient chances to prove his worth by Everton boss Roberto Martinez
Chelsea has loaned out a total of 8 players within the country, 4 of them will be competing in the Barclays Premier League itself. Christian Atsu, the man who joined us a year back from Porto has moved to Liverpool’s archrivals Everton. While, Victor Moses has moved to Stoke City, Ryan Bertrand to Southampton and promising youngster Nathan Chalobah has moved on a short term deal to Burnley. These are mostly well rehearsed moves, as Chelsea made sure that Stoke City agreed to their condition of offering Victor Moses sufficient game time, while Ryan was bound to get abundant exposure after the move of Luke Shaw to Man Utd. Chalobah has been carefully placed under the guidance of Sean Dyche, who has made it clear that he is thrilled to have the promising youngster with him. And when it goes to Roberto Martinez, we can be sure that he will use the resources presented to him in the most efficient way, so Atsu, do take up your opportunities as you are offered! Chelsea do have negotiated with Everton about the opportunities that Atsu needs to get from the Merseyside club. The rest of the players have been loaned out to the lower leagues so as to help grow their careers. Bamford moved to Middlesbrough along with Jamal Blackman and Omeruo Kenneth. While John Swift has move to Rotherham United. Patrick Bamford, for me was the only exception who I believe should have been loaned within the Premier League.
2) Germany & Holland
Tomas Kalas, the man who tamed Suarez on his debut is one of the players whose performance will be keenly measured by Chelsea FC
Germany & Holland are the countries where Chelsea have concentrated the most next, with 4 players joining each country’s respective leagues. The younger Hazard joined the promising outfit of Borussia Mönchengladbach, and the lad has already started firing his cylinders for his new team. The man who had Suarez in his backpocket on his debut, Tomas Kalas, joined FC Cologne and will be under the keen observance of the Chelsea board. Whereas, Brazilian Lucas Piazon and Oriol Romeu joined Frankfurt and VFB Stuttgart respectively.
When it comes to Holland, Vitesse was again the major landing ground as they managed to take in 3 promising Chelsea players in the form of Joshua McEachran, Bertrand Traore and Wallace. The largely unknown 19 year old striker, Stipe Perica, has re-joined NAC Breda, who were already impressed by the youngster’s performance for the Eredivisie club last season.
All of these 8 youngsters have a great chance of gaining exposure from two of the leading leagues in the footballing world. The German league is fast gaining reputation of being one of the most competitive leagues from around the world, while the Dutch league already has a reputation for producing the best young talents.
3) Spain & Italy
Marko Marin needs to take up this Fiorentina challenge to rejuvenate his ever declining career
Chelsea have loaned 3 players each to the Spanish league as well as the technique oriented Italian league. However, it is a bit disappointing to know that youngster Davila Ulises, only managed to find a second division suitor. Gael Kakuta and Mario Pasalic will be competing in the first division in Spain for Rayo Vallecano and Elche respectively.
The main moves were however made to Italy. German international Marko Marin has joined the impressive Fiorentina while Marco van Ginkel and Fernando Torres were two big name signings into a legendary but currently struggling AC Milan side. It is rumored that Torres’ two year loan deal means that he will spend the rest of his Chelsea contract over there and the Italian capital will snap up the striker for free once he becomes a free agent. That is, if he manages to impress his new club. Van Ginkel can make the most out of this move to Italy as he now has a chance of learning the art of controlling the central midfielder by the likes of former blue Michael Essien, who was once called one of the best in the position, and also hard tackler Nigel De Jong and the ever impressive Sulley Muntari. Ginkel will also be under the guidance of Milan legend Inzaghi for the season. All he needs to do is now impress his coach into playing him week in week out.
4) France, Chile & Greece Islam Feruz has the potential to lighten up the Greek league, however, whether he will live up to his potential is a question that can be answered only through the course of the season
Youngsters Joao Rodriguez and Matej Delac have moved to the French league to get some quality first team action, while Cristian Cuevas has moved to his homeland Chile and will be representing Uni de Chile for the rest of the season. Highly rated Islam Feruz was initially sent out to Russia to join second division team Krylia Sovetov, however, the journey ended within two days as the young man surrendered to the country’s widely different lifestyle. For sure it is not the lifestyle that found difficult to cope with, but the extreme weather. Chelsea however managed to find him a new loan club in the form of Greek outfit, OFI Crete.
People may wonder about the number of players from the above mentioned list who will be having a future at Chelsea FC, however, these loan moves surely can lead us with a feeling that Chelsea indeed wants to make the most of the young resources that they have, and that they will keep a keen eye on each of these players throughout the span of the season to grade their performances, and if they appear to perform as per expectations, who knows, maybe we could see a few of these talents make the first team for Chelsea in the next season.
What do you think about Chelsea’s move to send out 26 players out on loan? Which of these do you think will be able to break into the first team of Chelsea in the next season? Do leave your thoughts and views in the comments section below.
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