Since Roman Abramovich took control of Chelsea back in 2003, the club has been praised for their shrewd business in the transfer market, turning a profit by selling players year on year. However, more has been made in recent times about the amount of players currently employed by Chelsea and how many of those players are part of a bigger system that’s only purpose is to generate revenue for the club.
As of today, Chelsea have thirty-eight players out on loan. The most notable, you might say, are players such as Michy Batshuayi, Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kurt Zouma, and Marco van Ginkel.
Today, we’ll take a look at how the players currently plying their trade away from Stamford Bridge are performing, and if they have enough about them to challenge for a spot in the first team any time soon.
Mario Pasalic (Spartak Moscow)
Pasalic is one of the players who probably will get a chance to show what he’s got in a Chelsea shirt. He signed a new four-year contract before going out on loan to Spartak at the beginning of this season. It was surprising that he ended up there as he had a very good season for AC Milan in 2016/2017, playing twenty games for the Italian side. This year, he’s made twenty-four appearances for Spartak and has scored four goals as they currently sit third and are currently unbeaten in five, winning four.
Marco van Ginkel (PSV)
The Dutch midfielder is looking to get his career back on track after failing to make his mark in England. van Ginkel was signed for £8m back in 2013 and he has since played just two games for the club. He’s been on loan at AC Milan and Stoke but it’s most recent move to PSV where he seems to have found his groove. After his loan to Stoke was cut short in January 2016, he was sent to PSV for the remainder of the season. Since then, he’s scored 25 goals in 45 games for the club and has since become their captain at the age of just twenty-five. Chelsea gave the player a new three-year contract in December of 2016. I wonder if this was to make sure they could still make a profit, as it seems MVG is turning into a solid box-to-box midfielder. You can be sure that PSV will want to keep their captain and they’ll be willing to pay whatever it takes.
Tomas Kalas (Fulham)
You’ll always hear whispers from academy coaches about certain players who are just destined for great things. A few years ago, you would hear these things about this boy, Tomas Kalas. A commanding defender who’s comfortable with the ball at his feet. He’s currently enjoying his sixth loan spell away from the club and his second at Fulham, where they are the form team in the Championship and look more than likely to end up in the play-off spots this season. Again, Chelsea rewarded their loan product with a new four-year deal before sending him on his latest loan adventure, so if anyone wants to try and prise Tomas away, they better have the money.
Matt Miazga and Michael Hector (Vitesse & Hull City)
I highly doubt that Michale Hector will ever play for Chelsea. He’s 25, was signed in 2015 and has not played a single game for the club. However, he’s reached a certain standard and will probably have a few suitors in the coming months. He’s consistently featured in all three of his loan moves, with the first coming at Reading, then Eintracht Frankfurt and now Hull City. His current team has conceded 1.50 goals per game and has kept a clean sheet in just 24% of their games.
Matt Miazga is an exciting American who will be slightly disappointed with his lack of chances at Chelsea. Signed in 2016 for just £3.5m, he’s made just two starts for the club. The first an impressive performance against Villa, where the Blues won 4-0. The second, he was substituted at half time. Later that year he was sent to Vitesse, a popular destination for Chelsea youth products. He’s now spending another season with the club after a very successful loan spell where he helped the side win the KNVB Cup. Even in Miazga continues to improve, I see his future away from Stamford Bridge with the players that the club currently has in defence.
Lewis Baker (Middlesbrough)
Another prospect to be excited about is Lewis Baker. After a superb season with Vitesse, where he scored 15 in 39 from midfield, he moved to Middlesbrough to try and help them bounce back to the Premier League. So far he’s played ten times and scored once. This is probably not the best loan move for him with the side having a wealth of options in his position. I think it’s key for players to be able to become the main man whilst out on loan. I guess if they’re good enough, they’ll play but it’s hard to see someone like Stewart Downing, Adam Clayton or Jonny Howson being dropped by Tony Pulis.
We have only really scratched the surface on some of the players currently out on loan from Chelsea. There’s Lucas Piazon who seems content in just auto-renewing his loan to Fulham, Tammy Abraham who scored twenty-three goals last season and now finds himself at Swansea, Charly Musonda with Rodgers at Celtic and Baba Rahman, signed for £22m in 2015 now struggling to get games for Schalke 04.
I think it’s clear that sometimes this system works for both the players and the club, like when Nathan Ake went to Bournemouth. He improved, came back and Bournemouth did all they could to make the move a permanent one. There’s also Andreas Christensen, who now looks set to become a key player at the club for years to come. It was only because of his development and first-team experience elsewhere that he was able to improve so that he was ready for the Premier League.
So what for the current crop? How many of the thirty-eight will pull on that Chelsea shirt again? Will Eden be the only Hazard to play for Chelsea or will his siblings currently on the books be used only for profit? At the end of the day, football is a business and these players are part of the product.
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