Chelsea’s success over the past few years has often been under a black cloud at Stamford Bridge, as the Blues have regularly been criticised for their approach to young players- sending a hoard of talents out on-loan in recent years.

Staggeringly, Antonio Conte’s side had over 30 players on-loan across Europe last season and the majority of those were sent out of English football, which limits their development into suitable players for English football.

The fact that Chelsea haven’t had an academy graduate become a regular in their ranks since John Terry’s rise to prominence highlights the issues that the Blues face but there are indications that things could be a little different next season.

New Hull City boss Leonard Slutsky, a close friend of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, has confirmed that he’s held talks with the Blues regarding taking young players on-loan next season- which will give them crucial experience within English football.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Slutsky said:

“In the Championship we have some loan options. It’s four players from one team, and it’s a possible situation to get some players from Chelsea. We spoke with him about this situation, but it’s not the absolute option. If we need some players, I think it’s possible.”

“Chelsea have a lot of serious players – 37 on loan altogether, all over Europe. I think we will have some opportunities but I won’t speak about each player.”

Approving loan deals to fellow English sides is certainly advisable for the Blues as a trio of their loanees excelled elsewhere in England last year- with Nathan Ake impressing on-loan at Bournemouth during the first-half of the campaign, Tammy Abraham netting 23 goals on-loan at Bristol City and Tomas Kalas helping Fulham reach the play-offs across London.

The successes of those loan deals show that handing young players experience within English football is vital and it would certainly be more beneficial for a youngster to spend a season playing regularly in the Championship rather than being farmed out on-loan to Vitesse Arnheim.

Chelsea do still have a lot of work to do if they are to remove their tag of being hoarders of young talent and a side that doesn’t hand opportunities to young players but that can change under Antonio Conte, as long as he puts faith in his array of young stars and hands them the necessary experience.

Should Chelsea fail to do that, then they could face problems behind the scenes as young players may end-up snubbing a move to Stamford Bridge.