The goals have been flying in left, right and centre on the loan front in recent weeks and there was no let-up over the past seven days either. We have three more to bring you to kick off the latest Loan Report, beginning with a first-ever senior strike for Jordan Houghton.
Headliners
The 19 year-old midfielder joined League One side Gillingham in August on a deal initially expected to last until January and immediately slotted in as a regular starter. He’s helped contribute to a strong start to the season for the Kent side and last Tuesday night scored for the first time during their 5-1 thumping of Fleetwood; the goal capping a terrific individual performance.
He played a full match on Saturday at home to Oldham too, and such has been his impression at Priestfield Stadium so far, it would be a surprise if he doesn’t spend the entire campaign there.
Shifting our attention over to the Netherlands, there was a five-star showing from Vitesse on Sunday too. Their 5-0 humbling of a useful Groningen side featured goals for both Dominic Solanke and Nathan as Peter Bosz’s side stayed within shouting distance of the Eredivisie summit.
Solanke and Lewis Baker – who this week earned an England Under-21 call-up – started as usual and Solanke opened the scoring midway through the first half with an opportunistic effort. Nathan came on later in the game to score the fourth of the eventual five, whilst Solanke and then Baker were given well-earned breathers late on; the latter replaced by Danilo Pantic. Izzy Brown, however missed out through injury.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDM_Jionbxs
England
Nathan Aké made his first Premier League start for Watford on Saturday, playing the full ninety minutes at left-back in their 1-1 draw at Bournemouth. Christian Atsu, named on the Ballon d’Or Long List this week, was again not deemed good enough to be named in the Cherries’ matchday squad.
Victor Moses played an hour for West Ham at Sunderland, Marco van Ginkel was given the last twenty minutes for Stoke at Aston Villa to help them see out a 1-0 win, and Patrick Bamford was an unused substitute for Crystal Palace at home to West Brom.
Three of Chelsea’s four Championship loanees faced off at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday with Reading’s Michael Hector and Lucas Piazon triumphing 2-0 over Middlesbrough and Tomas Kalas. Piazon and Kalas were both substituted during the second half whilst Hector completed the full match and appears to have re-established himself at the heart of Steve Clarke’s very sturdy defence.
The fourth, John Swift, joined injury-hit Brentford on Thursday for a month and got twenty minutes from the bench in their 2-0 defeat at Derby forty-eight hours later.
Alex Davey was a 56th-minute substitute for Peterborough against Bury on Tuesday and then remained unused on Saturday at home to Millwall.
Italy
The big story out of Italy this week was that Roma have turned Mohamed Salah’s loan into a permanent deal. They reserved to right to do that at any point during the agreed loan period and, after three goals in successive appearances last week, the Giallorossi triggered the deal. Chelsea are yet to confirm things their end but Roma have provided documentation accordingly and, as such, Salah’s final Loan Report contribution was his involvement in their 3-2 Champions League defeat to BATE Borisov in midweek.
Juan Cuadrado started against both Sevilla and Bologna for Juventus and helped them to a pair of victories.
Nathaniel Chalobah made a long-awaited Napoli debut in the 85th minute of their Europa League win away to Legia Warsaw on Wednesday, and was on the bench in the San Siro on Sunday as his in-form colleagues ran out 4-0 winners.
Wallace and Stipe Perica were unused substitutes for Carpi and Udinese respectively.
France
Mario Pašalić was an unused substitute for Monaco versus Tottenham on Europa League duty and then again on Sunday at home to Rennes, for whom Jeremie Boga wasn’t selected in the matchday eighteen. He was instead involved in their reserve team fixture, scoring a penalty and (understandably) generally being the best player on the park.
Germany
Andreas Christensen had a big week in starting – and playing very well – for Borussia Mönchengladbach at home to Manchester City in the Champions League, before then helping them continue their Bundesliga resurrection with a clean sheet performance in a 2-0 win over Wolfsburg on Saturday. He’s started in every one of their victories this season and, for now at least, appears to be very much a positive presence.
Belgium
Victorien Angban celebrated his fine start to the season, and indeed his professional career, with a first call-up to the full Ivory Coast national team squad this week. He was however unable to feature for Sint-Truiden on Saturday in light of his red card against Anderlecht last week – violent conduct earning him a three-match ban – and they lost 3-1 to Waasland-Beveren without him. Joao Rodriguez started and played an hour in attack whilst Cristian Cuevas came on at half-time in an attacking left-sided role.
Cristian Manea was an unused substitute for Mouscron against OH Leuven but he has now at least made the bench for the first time. Baby steps…
Netherlands
Todd Kane and NEC Nijmegen finish the weekend in a very impressive seventh place in the league after a 4-1 home win over ADO Den Haag. The young full-back has been an ever-present for his new club and continues to catch the eye.
Portugal
Uli Dávila was not involved for Vitória Setúbal against Estoril on Friday night.
Scotland
Islam Feruz is back in training after a recent injury for Hibernian but wasn’t in a position to feature in their away win at Queen of the South on Saturday.
Turkey
Marko Marin played the full match as Trabzonspor lost 2-1 at home to Konyaspor, but there was no Kenneth Omeruo for Kasimpasa at Antalyaspor as the Nigerian defender has suffered an injury that looks set to keep him out for a month.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Matej Delač and FK Sarajevo lost a tempestuous derby match 1-0 to Zeljeznicar and, it’s safe to say, he wasn’t exactly a fan of the refereeing displayed in this incident: