September has seen the 2020-21 season get in to full swing across Europe and with it has come the expansion of the latest Loan Army. Almost three dozen Chelsea players are out on loan now and, with the domestic transfer window in England for Football League clubs still open until mid-October, it’s set to grow further still. Uwakwe finds early success Every player wants to make an instant impression when…
The end of the 2019-20 academy season was as abrupt and as unexpected a development as most involved at this level will ever experience. The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide left a near six-month hiatus from competitive football, but the coming week sees the return of meaningful action at this level where, once again, Chelsea figure to be keenly involved when it matters most. What a twelve months. Emboldened…
And we’re back. The 2020-21 Loan Army season started five days before the 2019-20 season finished, when Victor Moses and Inter were on the losing side in the Europa League Final against Sevilla, drawing a line under the longest campaign any of us are likely to witness in our lifetimes. Earlier that week, however, Danilo Pantic had made his debut for Serbian Premier League side Čukarički, kicking off another year…
Sometimes things just don’t go to plan. Saturday’s FA Cup Final is a case in point; losing to Arsenal wasn’t part of the script as far as Chelsea were concerned, but it happened, and now Frank Lampard and the club have to plot a path forward and continue to make the promising progress they’ve shown throughout much of the extended 2019-20 season. On an individual level, the same thing happens…
First things first, nobody’s pretending it was a perfect season. We know where the club is, where it needs to improve, and how much work is ahead in order to close the gap on Liverpool and Manchester City. That being said, it was a season of vindication. It was a season that proved that giving young, home-grown players a chance is a choice, not a by-product of winning or of…
The final Loan Report of the season wraps up the loose ends from the last week in England and, while action continues for a while yet in Italy, we’ll keep track of that on Twitter. England Premier League Aston Villa saw out the season and achieved Premier League survival without Danny Drinkwater, who made just three appearances and played 207 minutes there. Championship There was far more intrigue in the…
We’re almost there; the longest season in Loan Report history has but a couple of weeks to go, but there’s still much at stake. England Premier League Aston Villa’s fight against relegation looks set to finish without the services of Danny Drinkwater, as the midfielder once again missed out on selection away to Everton in midweek. Jacob Maddox joined Southampton on loan in January with a view to a permanent…
Another week of Loan Army action is in the books and, while few feathers were ruffled, there’s still much to play for. England Premier League Except if you’re Danny Drinkwater of course. He wasn’t involved in either of Aston Villa’s matches again. Championship Marc Guehi and Conor Gallagher continue to impress at Swansea, helping them to a 3-1 midweek win over Jake Clarke-Salter’s Birmingham City, before losing out at the…
June gave way to July this past week and, while the Loan Report still lacks fireworks, we’re moving towards the end of a long season that will have tested the resolve of everyone involved. Headliners The headlines this week were made by two players who aren’t actually playing. Charlie Brown’s first venture into professional football was ended prematurely when the Belgian season was cancelled due to the pandemic, but he…
Football has been in a strange place these last few months, and few if any of us really know what lies ahead, but there are some constants that remain in place regardless. The academic school year, for example, might have been interrupted in March by the government’s enforced lockdown, but it officially ends in July and everyone moves up a year or heads for pastures new. The fabled last day…