The Loan Report: August 8-15

Posted By on August 15, 2016

It’s Tammy Abraham’s world, we’re all just living in it. The teenage forward continued to grab the headlines this week with three more goals to announce his arrival in the professional game loud and clear. Elsewhere, the Loan Army has expanded into the 20s over the past seven days, so let’s dive right in.

Headliners

We begin with Tammy though. After coming off the bench to match-winning effect for Bristol City against Wigan last weekend (although his goal has now been taken off him and credited to a team-mate), he was handed his first start by manager Lee Johnson for their League Cup trip to Wycombe on Tuesday night, and less than twenty minutes later he was rewarded with another goal.

That proved to be enough to earn him a first league start on Saturday away to newly-promoted Burton, and you know the rest. A first-half goal looked to have secured another three points only for the hosts to level two minutes from time. Undeterred, Abraham grabbed another in the fifth minute of stoppage time to establish a clear early lead as the division’s leading goalscorer.

With each of last season’s relegated Premier League sides on the fixture list before August is out, we’re about to find out a lot more about where he’s at and the sort of impact he can have, but it’s been a truly spectacular start to the season.

New Loanees

Hitting the twenty mark is pretty much a certainty these days on the loanwatch front and, indeed, it would be a surprise if thirty wasn’t topped again for a third straight season, but the first of those two particular milestones was passed this week with business now picking up.

Danilo Pantic was the first to confirm his new home for 2016-17, returning to the Eredivisie after a disappointing spell at Vitesse last time out to join Excelsior. Narrowly avoiding relegation last season, they are one of the smallest clubs in the Dutch top flight but should be in a position to give the young Serbian forward the playing time he needs to further his development.

He was joined in the Netherlands by another with prior experience of playing there, although Bertrand Traore’s resume is rather more impressive by comparison. Having established himself as a prolific goal-getter in Arnhem during 2014-15, he returned to Stamford Bridge last season to produce a goal every 93 minutes in a largely bit-part role.

Despite impressing and despite the lack of attacking depth in Antonio Conte’s squad, it became clear that the Burkina Faso international wasn’t going to feature as often as he would like, so instead he has opted to join up with former Vitesse manager Peter Bosz at Ajax. He came off the bench on Saturday evening to make his debut in the 2-2 home draw with Roda, going close to scoring once, and will now turn his attention to helping the Amsterdam side reach the Champions League group stages by beating FC Rostov in the qualifiers beginning on Tuesday.

Alex Davey linked up with Crawley Town until January, joining fellow loanee Mitchell Beeney at the League Two club and strengthening the ties between them and Chelsea yet further. Manager Dermot Drummy spent five years in the Blues’ academy and also has Jimmy Smith, Billy Clifford and Danny Pappoe amongst his ranks as he goes about revamping things at the Checkatrade Stadium. Davey made his debut in Saturday’s 1-1 draw away to Jordan Houghton’s Doncaster Rovers, with each loanee playing 90 minutes but Beeney remaining an unused substitute for the visitors.

Michael Hector was confirmed as an Eintracht Frankfurt player on Sunday after Chelsea swiftly moved to help the German side out when it became clear that American defender Matt Miazga turned down the option of a move there in favour of apparent Premier League interest. Jamaican international Hector instead takes his skills there, turning out in the closing stages of a friendly against Celta Vigo less than an hour after his arrival was announced, and he joins Baba Rahman (Schalke) and Andreas Christensen (Gladbach) in the country.

Finally, Jamal Blackman (Wycombe Wanderers) and Izzy Brown (Rotherham United) made it 22 and 23 respectively as they secured moves on Monday; Blackman until January, Brown for the full season.

England

Nathan Aké’s first opportunity to impress for Bournemouth should have come on Sunday in the Cherries’ Premier League opener at home to Manchester United but the Dutchman watched on as an unused substitute during their 3-1 defeat.

In the Championship, Abraham’s Bristol City sit joint-top of the table with two other unbeaten teams and, as luck would have it, both Huddersfield Town and Fulham have a Chelsea youngster on loan too. Kasey Palmer came off the bench to match-winning effect once again after scoring on his debut against Brentford, this time playing a fine through ball to Jack Payne to set up a 2-1 win at Newcastle (although he couldn’t repeat the trick away to Shrewsbury in the Terriers’ midweek League Cup exit), whilst Tomas Kalas was once again an impressive figure at the back for a Fulham side which won 2-1 away to Preston North End.

Alex Kiwomya played an hour of Crewe’s extra time win at Sheffield United in the EFL Cup in midweek and then thirty minutes again as a substitute in Saturday’s 0-0 draw at home to promotion favourites Portsmouth.

Netherlands

Vitesse came crashing back to earth with a thud this weekend as, despite hammering Willem II 4-1 on the opening day, they lost their first match at the Gelredome this new term 2-1 to ADO Den Haag, the former club of their new manager Henk Fraser. Lewis Baker and Nathan were both quiet and off the pace for the most part, the Brazilian lasting just an hour with Baker also being substituted a few minutes from the end.

Belgium

Matej Delač was on the bench again as Royal Excel Mouscron lost 2-1 at Oostende.

Brazil

Wallace was an unused substitute for Gremio against Corinthians.

Colombia

Joao Rodriguez played no part in either of Sante Fe’s fixtures this past week.

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