Reserve team players Gael Kakuta and Ben Gordon have this afternoon finalised loan deals for the second half of the 2011-12 season.
Kakuta’s protracted move to French top division outfit Dijon FCO has finally gone through, whilst Gordon will make a return to Kilmarnock, where he spent the first half of the 10-11 campaign.
News of Kakuta’s proposed move was around as early as a few days before Christmas but there were more than a few hitches before the French club confirmed it today.
Both the player and Andre Villas-Boas were fully behind the move, but Chelsea officials were concerned that Dijon would struggle to meet their financial demands with regards paying a contribution towards Kakuta’s wages.
They instead struck a deal with Olympiakos in Greece, but Kakuta was against making such a move. In the end, sense prevailed over fiscal security and he will play in Ligue Une until the end of the season.
Gordon, meanwhile, will return to Rugby Park, where he had the most successful spell of his fledgling career to date. Chelsea initially recalled him from the Scottish Premier League citing their opinion that they found it hard to appraise talent at that level and wanted him in the football league.
He joined Scunthorpe United and then Peterborough United at the start of the current season but both moves were ill-fated. He can now look forward to kicking on back in familiar surroundings, but under a new manager in Kenny Shiels.
You can keep up with how Gael gets on at Dijon throughout the rest of the season here on TheChels.net, and on Twitter @chelseayouth.