Mid Season Loan Report

 

As we enter the start of a New Year and a new transfer window, I wanted to review the players out on loan for the first half of the season, to see how well they have been doing up until this point. I am not including first team players or soon to be signing players on loan in this summary. Below is a visualisation of the stats from these players so far:

Andrey Santos – Strasbourg – Ligue 1

Without doubt Santos has had the best loan for this season and is one of the best loans the club has had that I have recorded. In the 16 games that Strasbourg have played so far this season Santos has started 15 of them. He has been the best player in the team so far this season without a doubt. He has been operating in a central midfield role and has contributed 5 goals and 2 assists in those 15 games. Performance-wise he is excelling, racking up an average rating of 7.80 so far, only Cole Palmer in the first team has recorded a higher average so far this season with 7.83.

There are many among Chelsea fans who believe that we should bring Santos back in this January transfer window and integrate him into the first team. Reporting suggests that Chelsea do indeed have the option to recall him during this window, however, I am not sure if that is the best option for him at this stage. Allowing him to see out the season at Strasbourg, and continue the good form, will be more beneficial for him and his development than returning to back up the first team.

Caleb Wiley – Strasbourg – Ligue 1

Wiley joined Chelsea in the summer and was immediately sent on loan to Strasbourg. Unfortunately, his time at Strasbourg has been plagued by injury. Firstly, with a knee injury and then in November a dislocated shoulder, which could potentially see him being recalled back to Chelsea to rehabilitate and opening up an international loan spot for another player. Wiley has only managed 6 appearances to date with half being starts.

Teddy Sharman-Lowe – Doncaster Rovers – League 2

For those who may not know Sharman-Lowe is a 21-year-old Goalkeeper who is embarking on his fourth loan move, having previously spent time at Burton Albion, Bromley, Havant & Waterlooville. Goalkeepers being out on loan is a tricky thing to get right, usually they are at lower league clubs to ensure that they get the minutes that their development requires. Being in League 2 this season Sharman-Lowe has established himself very well having started all but four of the fixtures for Doncaster. In his 24 starts he has kept seven clean sheets and conceded a total of 25 goals which is a decent record. His performances have earned him a 6.97 rating so far this season and hopefully by the end of the season he can increase this to over the 7.00 mark, which for me is always the sign of a successful loan spell, and earn himself a loan next season in League One or the Championship.

Ted Curd – Hampton & Richmond – National League South

Curd is an 18-year-old Goalkeeper embarking on his second loan spell having spent half of last season on loan at Hashtag United (incidentally my local club that I was coaching at for a few years). 18 years old is very young for a Goalkeeper and getting first team game time at this level for him will be an invaluable experience. So far, he has taken brilliantly to the level of football having started 23 of the teams 25 games keeping 10 clean sheets and conceding 23 goals. His performances have been very positive to date with an average rating of 7.14, which if he can continue to maintain will be an excellent achievement for him.

Eddie Beach – Crawley Town – League One

Beach is one of the few players having a difficult time on loan this season. The 21-year-old Goalkeeper is on his third loan spell having previously been on loan at Gateshead, where he made five appearances, and Chelmsford where he made 20 appearances. He unfortunately missed 12 of Crawley’s games through injury and has only managed two starts this season conceding six goals and has been on the bench for 13 games. There is a decision to be made with Beach now: do the club decide to leave him at Crawley and see if he can force his way into the team? (which at this point seems unlikely) or do they bring him back and find a new loan move for him elsewhere?

Beach’s contract with Chelsea is up at the end of this season and it would seem likely that he will not be offered a new contract resulting in him needing to look for a new home to try and establish himself. At 21 years old this is probably the right move for him.

Luke Campbell – Hendon – Istmian League

Another young Goalkeeper out on loan is 19-year-old Campbell. He has obviously gone to a lower league to get game time and so far, the loan is doing what it is was designed to do. He has started every game so far for Hendon which has totalled 30 appearances to date, where he has kept 9 clean sheets and conceded 42 goals. Playing at this level in senior football will give Campbell a good grounding and hopefully next season he can continue to move up the football ladder.

Alfie Gilchrist – Sheffield United – Championship

Having spent time in Chelsea’s first team squad last season making 17 appearances in total Gilchrist has gone on loan to the Championship to further his development. So far, he is performing well for Sheffield United and has made 25 appearances all at Right Back and has contributed two assists. His performances have got him to an average of 6.97 which is a decent start to the season, with the hope that in the second half of the season he can improve his consistency and end the season strong. This would put him in a good position for next season.

Dylan Williams – Burton Albion – League One

Williams joined Burton under former Chelsea U21’s manager Mark Robinson at the start of the season. Things have not gone well for Burton this season and they currently sit at the very bottom of League One with Mark Robinson being sacked in October. To find a place as a loan player in such turmoil is not an easy task. Williams has made 23 appearances with 15 being as a starter and has contributed one goal and one assist so far. He has been playing in either Left Back or Left-Wing Back role depending on the formation Burton have been putting out. Williams will hope to improve on his performances in the second half of the season having only made an average of 6.57 in the first half, but again performing well in a struggling team is not an easy prospect especially in your first loan move into senior football.

Ronnie Stutter – Burton Albion – League One

Another player who has suffered due to injury is Ronnie Stutter. The injuries along with the turmoil at Burton has seen the 19-year-old only play for 20 minutes this season. Ultimately, the complete lack of game time has led to Chelsea making the decision to recall Stutter. Hopefully the club can find a better home for him for the rest of the season, and he can overcome the injury issues as a good spell on loan is what Stutter needs to further his development.

Bashir Humphreys – Burnley – Championship

Having previously spent time on loan at Swansea and SC Paderborn a loan for the 21-year-old to Burnley was seen as an opportunity to establish himself as a senior player. So far, he has made 20 appearances with many of them being from the start and playing at either Left Back or Right Back. To date he has been consistent with his performances and is currently at an average rating of 7.00. December saw him put in some very good performances which he can hopefully use as a building block to continue to improve for the rest of the season.

Humphreys loan move to Burnley includes an obligation to buy for £12m, so his current development is to Burnley’s benefit and not Chelsea’s but it will be very nice to see him become a good level pro.

Leo Castledine – Shrewsbury Town – League One

Castledine is embarking on his first loan move at the age of 19 and so far, he is getting the game time he needs in League One. He has started the majority of his 23 appearances and has managed to bag himself two goals operating in the Attacking Midfield role for Shrewsbury. Much like Burton Shrewsbury are struggling this season sitting 22^nd in the league which has made it harder for Castledine to stand out. That being said, I am sure he will want to look to improve his performances in the second half of the season considering that he is sitting at an average rating of 6.44. Hopefully he can continue to get the game time and improve on his performances.

Trevoh Chalobah – Crystal Palace – Premier League

To the dismay of a lot of people Chelsea were looking to offload Chalobah in the summer. However, a permanent deal was not found for him and a loan move to Premier League side Crystal Palace emerged. He joined the club injured but once he recovered, he quickly established himself in the team playing on the right side of a back three alongside fellow Cobham graduate Marc Guehi. So far, he has made 14 appearances scoring three goals and achieving an average rating of 7.05 which to put into perspective is higher than Colwill (6.94), Badiashile (6.98) and Disasi (6.93) which has to put into question the wisdom of allowing him to leave.

Armando Broja – Everton – Premier League

Broja is another player who was possibly looking at a permanent move away from Chelsea but ended up with a loan. Broja’s season has only just started having to recove from an Achilles injury. He has only made one start and three sub appearances so far this season so he will be hoping to get more game time going forward. Personally, I feel that now is the time for Broja to find a permanent home away from Chelsea. This is his fourth loan move and including his time in the Chelsea first team he has failed to establish himself as a reliable goal scorer.

 

Chelsea used 32 separate Academy players in their first teams squads last season

 

It has been a while since I fully immersed myself in the academy at Chelsea, life getting in the way, but I have decided it is time to return and get myself back involved with all things academy.

In doing so and looking at the stats for last season I was surprised by a statistic that came to light. That being that last season under Pochettino there were 32 players who have played in Chelsea’s academy used in first team squads throughout the season. That is 32 separate players. It surprised me because I would never have said it would be that many as a gut feeling.

The figure on it’s own makes good reading for the academy and something to be proud of but I want to look at that figure deeper here and try to come to some thoughts on the overall season with the academy players and the first team.

Firstly of those 32 players only 8 of them managed to make 10 or more actual appearances on the pitch for the first team. Of the other 24 players none of them made any more than 3 appearances on the pitch. So the first thing we can see is that there was a core group of 8 players who are academy graduates who played first team football last season.

Looking at those 8 players now and Casadei is one who you could argue should not count in these figures but for now I have. You have the core group of players you would expect to be there in Gallagher, Colwill, Chalobah, Broja & James with Maatsen also making a decent number of appearances. All of these players at their age and experience you would expect to be making the numbers they did make. All but 2 of those players have now departed the club either permanently or on loan.

The only player last season we can say really made the move from academy to first team is Alfie Gilchrist who managed to make 17 appearances in total last season. This is the sort of progress you want to be seeing each and every season. At least one player who makes that step up and gets some good time in and around the first team. Gilchrist is now hoping to take a step further and get some real good minutes under his belt on loan.

What I really want to understand here is the 24 players that was used who made 3 or less appearances but were part of match day squads. We know last season that injuries were huge and that probably accounts for a large chunk of these numbers. However I think this speaks to the fact that these players were only there for numbers and not with any intention to actually give them some involvement.

Given the situation we had last season it would have been more beneficial in my opinion to take a handful of these players and consistently use them in the squad to give them time and allow the manager to get confidence in them. Instead it is clear that Pochettino used the academy players just to fill up the bench and had no intention of using them. It was used to give a little reward to players the opportunity to sit on the first team bench for a match or 2.

This is highlighted by the fact that 20 of those 32 players made no more than 5 minutes on the pitch with the majority (15) seeing no minutes at all. It is clear that an opportunity was missed last season to allow some of these players the chance to integrate themselves more in the same way that Gilchrist did. It is hard to understand actually given 15 separate players the opportunity to be part of the first team squad and never use them. Again this is a massive underlining of the fact that there was never the intention to use them in the first place.

Looking ahead to this coming season and we have seen the number of first team players who are academy graduates dwindle significantly. It remains to be seen how Maresca will use the academy players in and around his first team but I hope that when he does it will be in more meaningful way than we saw last season. It is something I will be keeping an eye on and will see how things have gone once we come to the end of the season.