The transfer deadline saw Chelsea’s loanee tally reach a grand total of 26 and, whilst a handful of them are yet to feature for their new clubs as a result of the international break, it was still the busiest weekend of loanwatch action thus far in this fledgling 2014-15 season. We kick off with a goal scored by a player who is very much at a make-or-break time in his career.
Headliners
Whether or not Gael Kakuta has a future at Stamford Bridge, he knows deep down that the next ten months offers him the opportunity to control his own destiny. An impressive spell at Rayo Vallecano will attract plenty of suitors as he approaches the end of his contract and he’s started very well indeed in Madrid, netting his first goal on Sunday against Elche.
It was a fine strike too, showcasing his always-evident dribbling and flair but also his increased comfort with his weaker foot. It wasn’t enough to earn points for Rayo but he’s definitely going to be a key contributor based on his first three matches there.
For the opposition, Mario Pašalić played just the final ten minutes having had a busy international break in which he represented Croatia at senior level for the first time.
England
Ryan Bertrand is growing into his role at Southampton very nicely and produced an influential display in their 4-0 hammering of Newcastle on Saturday. He put his name in the assists column for the first time in red and white by delivering the cross from which Graziano Pelle opened the scoring.
Victor Moses played the full match for Stoke in their 0-1 home reverse to Leicester, and Christian Atsu was an unused substitute for Everton at West Brom after featuring twice for Ghana in the previous tend days.
In The Championship, Patrick Bamford was the only one of three Middlesbrough connections to see any playing time as he came off the bench for the final ten minutes of their 2-1 win at Huddersfield Town. Kenneth Omeruo arrived back too late in the week from representing Nigeria to be in with a realistic shot of playing and the same applied to goalkeeper Jamal Blackman, who only trained twice with Aitor Karanka’s side before the trip to South Yorkshire.
Blackman is competing for the starting gloves with the so-far error-prone Tomás Mejías and the veteran Dimi Konstantopoulos and stands a strong chance of featuring once he’s settled in on Teesside. Mejías missed out through injury this weekend, weakening his grip on an already tenuous position, and it will be interesting to see who gets the nod for Tuesday’s trip to Cardiff City.
John Swift played no part for Rotherham United at Bournemouth and has increasingly been on the fringes of the squad despite some good showings in early August.
Germany
Lucas Piazón played a full game for Eintracht Frankfurt against Augsburg but was largely ineffective in a poor team performance as they went down to a 1-0 defeat.
Oriol Romeu played the full ninety minutes for Stuttgart in their 2-0 defeat at Bayern Munich whilst Thorgan Hazard saw just ten minutes of Borussia Moenchengladbach’s evisceration of Schalke on Saturday; again, perhaps due to his exertions with Belgium over the previous fortnight.
Tomas Kalas did not feature for Köln against Paderborn and is yet to play a single minute for the newly-promoted club. He’ll have to fight for his place in a defensive unit that has played very well so far.
Netherlands
It was a rare quiet weekend on the Vitesse Arnhem front with only Wallace playing any minutes of note in their 3-1 win against Excelsior. Bertrand Traore was absent with a thigh injury picked up playing for Burkina Faso and Josh McEachran only saw ten minutes at the end of the day.
Wallace played well in his first game back after a layoff of his own and might have scored a goal in the first half were it not for a good save to keep his well-hit effort out. He was harshly adjudged to have committed a late foul that saw a penalty given against him but otherwise fared just fine.
Stipe Perica played the full match and hit the post as NAC Breda beat Dordrecht 1-0.
Italy
Marko van Ginkel and Fernando Torres both still await their debuts for Milan as the Dutchman was an unused substitute during their 5-4 win at Parma whilst Torres has been sidelined by a sprained ankle picked up late in the week’s training sessions.
Marko Marin was once again absent from the Fiorentina squad as they hosted Genoa.
Spain
Uli Dávila was the only one of the 26 to play during the international week as he debuted for Tenerife at Girona and this weekend he made his home bow against Mirandés. He played 65 minutes before making way for Cristo Martín.
France
Joao Rodriguez had a lively ten-minute cameo for Bastia at home to Lens on Saturday, coming off the bench to make a late impact with two driving runs that threatened to earn a winner. If he continues to do that he’ll stand a much better chance of earning his first start for the Corsicans.
In the second tier, Matej Delač kept a clean sheet for his latest loan home (seven, if you’re counting), Arles-Avignon, as they beat Tours 1-0 on Friday to record their first win of the season.
Greece
Having backed out of a jaunt to Russia at the last moment, Scottish forward Islam Feruz will instead be spending the year in the somewhat friendlier climbs of Crete; specifically with OFI of the Greek Super League. His debut came away to traditional powerhouses Olympiacos as he got half an hour from the bench in their 3-0 defeat.
Chile
Cristian Cuevas’ Universidad de Chile take on Universidad de Concepción later tonight; any involvement for the left-back will be added here in an updated revision.