Chelsea: Nine head out on loan

As the pre season starts to crank up, Chelsea have already been very busy in finding clubs for the players who will need to spend time elsewhere to develop as players and to get the game time they need to make a name for themselves. Already, we have seen eight players take that step with quite a few more to follow i am sure.

It is not just academy trained players that are making loan moves; in something that is becoming a very common sight at Chelsea, there are also players signed for the first team whom we loan out to give them game time and players who need games as their first team prospects have stumbled, and we have already seen two of such loans materialise.

Thibaut Courtois:

At only 21 years of age, Courtois has already made quite a name for himself. Having officially signed for Chelsea in July of 2011, he was immediately sent on loan to La Liga club Athetico Madrid for the 2011/12 season and also the 2012/13 season where he has played for Atletico as first choice keeper in La Liga and also the Europa League where he picked up a winner’s medal and last season in the Champions League too.

He also, of course, picked up a Super Cup medal having played against Chelsea. Already having accumulated an impressive 74 games in Spain, he is once again returning to Atletico for another season, likely to be his last before returning to Chelsea to challenge Petr Cech for the number 1 spot.

Marko Marin:

Marko Marin was signed by Chelsea before the 2011/12 season had finished, and it was a singing that many people thought would be a good one for Chelsea. That optimism increased when Marin had what was a very impressive pre season in the USA with the first team.

However, things were not to work out as hoped, and with injury and changing managers as well as a lack of form saw Marin only make 6 appearances for the first team and a couple of appearances at U21 level. This season Marin is making a loan move to Sevilla; chances are that we will not see Marin back at Chelsea unless he has a really impressive season, and this loan will be stepping stone to an eventual sale.

Oriol Romeu:

Romeu joined Chelsea in the summer of 2011 from Barcelona. It was a signing with an eye on the future and it was hoped that Romeu could be a big player for us in the future. Two summers later and with 22 games and a few injuries behind, Romeu has joined Valencia on loan. Rumours are that should he do well enough at Valencia, he will stay permanently and that he has already agreed to a four-year deal to start next summer once the clubs agree on a fee.

It is a shame that things have not worked out so far for Romeu as at times he has looked a really useful player for us. There is, of course, the possibility that he will go on loan for a season, play some games and come back a better player, ready to make a good fist of playing for Chelsea’s first team. Time will tell where his future will lie, but at the moment the noises are that we may not see him in a Chelsea shirt again.

As always, there are also a number of academy trained players heading out on loan; this number will be sure to increase but it is interesting that there has been quite a few already, enabling the players to join up with their new clubs pre season. It is also very interesting that a lot of these players are joining up with clubs they have previously had loan moves with, enabling them to be familiar with the club but more importantly, for the clubs and managers to be familiar with the players.

George Saville:

20 year old midfielder George Saville is making his second loan spell. Last season, he went on loan to Millwall at the end of February and made three appearances. It was not the type of loan spell that Saville or the club would have hoped for. This season, however, he has made a quick move to League 1 side Brentford until the 5th January where ideally he will hope to impress with regular games and earn himself a loan to the Championship for the second half of the season.

George is a combative midfielder who also has excellent ball skills; he can play in any of the central midfield roles and has even filled in at centre back at times. Defensive midfield is where he is best at – able to break up play and distribute the ball well, and he can also score a few goals too.

Todd Kane:

19 year old right back Todd Kane is making his third loan move; he had a short spell at the end of 2012 with Preston, before joining Championship side Blackburn Rovers for the second half of the season. Todd quickly impressed at Blackburn and ended the season with a decent 14 appearances.

It is Blackburn Rovers where he returns to this season, and this time he will spend the whole season. It is now a club he knows very well and he will be comfortable returning there and will hope to spend the whole season playing games and gaining some valuable experience. I would expect Kane to do very well for himself this season. As a right back, Todd Kane is all action; he will get up and down the wing all day long and loves to get stuck into a tackle. He is also very capable of scoring some long range goals.

Patrick Bamford:

Another player returning for a second loan at a club is 19 year old striker Patrick Bamford. Bamford joined MK Dons in November of 2012 and stayed there for the remainder of the season and despite picking up an injury, he made 14 appearances scoring 4 goals and making quite an impression.

Bamford will return to MK Dons until the 5th January and will be gratefully received by MK Dons, who felt they would not be able to get him back. He will need to stay injury free this time and play more games and score the goals. As with Saville, the half season loan will be with a view to reassessing in January and deciding if he will be able to move up a level for the second half of the season. Patrick Bamford is a goalscorer, pure and simple and will look to get himself plenty on loan this season.

Billy Clifford:

Billy Clifford is an 20 year old midfielder who has also spent a lot of time playing at right back in Chelsea’s youth set up. However, he is better used as midfielder where he can play as a box to box player or in the number 10 role. He possesses great ball skills and an eye for a killer pass besides being able to score goals.

Last season, Billy Clifford spent the second half of the season on loan at Colchester United where he made himself a regular member of the team making 18 appearances and scoring 1 goal. This season he will be spending the first half of the season at Championship side Yeovil. It is a good step up for Billy and Yeovil having been in League 1 last season, he will know his capability and it should see him get plenty of game time, especially having the opportunity to spend pre season with the club.

Gael Kakuta:

It seems such a long time ago now that Gael Kakuta was being touted as the hottest prospect around and all the controversy surrounding his transfer but Kakuta is still a Chelsea player. He has been on loan to various clubs since January of 2011; he had back to back loan disasters in the premier league firstly with Fulham where he made seven appearances in his half season there, and then secondly at Bolton where he made four appearances between September and Junuary.

It wasn’t until the second half of the 2011/12 season that he finally got to play games on a regular basis when he moved to Dijon in France. Finally, he was getting games and making an impression. He followed that up by playing the whole of the 2012/13 season at Vitesse where he made a total of 22 appearances and it is to Vitesse where he will return for the whole of the 2013/14 season. With Van Ginkel and Bony both leaving Vitesse there will be more emphasis on Kakuta to make and impact and hopefully he can do just that.

Patrick van Aanholt:

Aanholt is a veteran of loan moves, this will be his 6th loan move having had loans at Coventry, Newcastle, Leicester, Wigan and Vitesse all to varying degrees of success. Last season’s loan to Vitesse was his big step where he spent the whole season and half of the previous season and made 40 appearances for the club. He will be hoping to do that again next season as he returns to Vitesse for another season. With Ashley Cole soon to be leaving in all likelihood, Van Aanholt, with a good season under his belt, could see himself return to Chelsea next season and battle Betrand for the starting spot, but he will need to do well this season first.

So there we have it, a group of young Chelsea talent who will be playing elsewhere this season. They will, in all likelihood, be joined by a number of other players as McEachran, Chalobah, Walker, Piazon, Wallace, Davilla and Ake are all likely to see themselves out on loan before the transfer window closes.