The Loan Report: September 5-11

Posted By on September 11, 2016

The first Loan Report since the closing of the summer transfer window sees us catch up on an unprecedented 38 (thirty-eight) Chelsea players continuing their development across the globe, but the headlines were mainly stolen by two of this season’s early protagonists in Tammy Abraham and Alex Kiwomya.

Headliners

We begin at the AESSEAL New York Stadium in Rotherham, where Abraham went head to head with Chelsea and England team-mate Izzy Brown in one of what will be several loanee clashes this season. Brown made an early impact by scoring his first goal in English football by seizing upon confusion in the Bristol City defence, and he helped lay on their second goal to give them a commanding second-half lead.

You can’t keep Abraham down though and the big man scored his sixth goal of the campaign so far with an opportunistic close-range finish to spark an eventual comeback. The spoils were deservedly shared not just between the two sides but between the Blues boys too.

If Abraham has been the pace-setter so far, Kiwomya has been doing everything he can do keep up whilst on loan at Crewe Alexandra. He was nominated for the League Two Player of the Month for August award, losing out on the public vote to James Coppinger, but ensured his September got off to a good start with Alex’s opening goal against Exeter City in a 2-0 win.

England

Jack Wilshere’s arrival on a season-long loan at Bournemouth immediately spelt bad news for Nathan Aké, with midfield competition already rife at the Vitality Stadium, and duly Aké was left out of their matchday squad for the win over West Brom on Saturday. Patrick Bamford did at least make his Burnley debut as a late substitute in the 1-1 draw at home to Hull and will be hoping for a better time of it than he had at Crystal Palace and Norwich during 2015-16.

Loic Remy suffered an injury during a training session at Crystal Palace this week and will be sidelined for up to two months. He will receive treatment back at Chelsea. Kenedy, meanwhile, played no part for Watford away to West Ham.

Tomas Kalas turned in a fine individual display for Fulham at home to Birmingham but made one unfortunate mistake with an under-hit pass that led to centre-back partner Michael Madl being sent off and Birmingham emerging with a 1-0 win, Fulham’s first defeat this season. He did at least prevent a heavier reverse with an impressive goal-line clearance from Jacques Maghoma’s shot.

Lucas Piazon was not involved but did offer a personal insight into life as a loanee this week…

https://twitter.com/charlieskillen/status/773043708530941952

Kasey Palmer saw action for the final ten minutes as Huddersfield Town beat Leeds United 1-0 to remain top of the pile, but Christian Atsu must wait for his Newcastle United debut after not making their squad for the win at Derby County.

Charlie Colkett did at least make his Bristol Rovers bow in the closing stages of their 2-2 draw at home to Rochdale and, although he had but little time to impress, he produced one or two moments of class that left the Gas fans purring and keen to see more from the midfield orchestrator. He will soon be joined by Jake Clarke-Salter, who got through 90 minutes on Friday night for Chelsea’s Development Squad in his first match since suffering a knee injury in early May.

Mitchell Beeney was handed his first league start for Crawley Town away to Stevenage and was solid despite the Reds falling to a 2-1 defeat. Alex Davey was an unused substitute whilst another goalkeeper, Jamal Blackman, was on the end of a 4-2 defeat for Wycombe at Portsmouth; the big stopper will probably want at least two of those goals back upon further review:

Jordan Houghton continued in his role as midfield anchorman for a Doncaster Rovers team seeking promotion and he provided the platform for the rest of his team-mates to hammer Morecambe 5-1 in a match celebrating Player of the Month Coppinger’s 500th appearance for the club.

Dipping into the non-league ranks to finish off England, Dion Conroy was an unused substitute for Aldershot in a goalless draw with Chester, and Nathan Baxter was on the losing side for Met Police against Hendon, albeit a controversial one as he was adjudged to have fouled his man for the game’s opening goal when it was quite clear that he played the ball first. He otherwise played well on his league debut, making a string of saves to keep his side in the game.

Germany

Nine times out of ten Andreas Christensen is solid, unflappable and looks every inch a world-class defender. Once or twice a season though, as it does for every defender, things tend to go awry and that was the case this weekend as Borussia Mönchengladbach lost 3-1 at Freiburg with neither the Dane nor his team-mates covering themselves in glory. They’ll have to pick themselves up and go again on Wednesday though as they head to Manchester to take on Pep Guardiola’s City.

Baba Rahman played ninety minutes as Schalke lost 2-0 at home to Bayern Munich whilst Michael Hector served a suspension after being sent off in each of his first two outings for Eintracht Frankfurt.

Netherlands

Ajax vs Vitesse was the banner fixture in the Eredivisie this weekend and, on the loanee front, it pitted Bertrand Traore against Lewis Baker and Nathan, whilst the newest arrival in Arnhem – Matt Miazga – was on the bench for the visitors. In the end the match was a disappointing affair with Ajax running out 1-0 winners; Traore limped off late in the second half having suffered a hamstring injury, roughly twenty minutes after Nathan had been substituted for another quiet display. Baker was busy and effective at times, twice going close to scoring from distance, but he was unable to affect the outcome.

Excelsior beat Heracles 3-1 without Danilo Pantic coming off the bench.

Spain

Charly Musonda came on as a 68th minute substitute for Betis in a ding-dong fixture at Valencia that saw the visitors squander a 2-0 lead only to steal a last-gasp 3-2 victory courtesy of Ruben Castro. Musonda was lively in the final third, showing some nice touches and generally threatening without providing the cutting edge needed.

Jeremie Boga started for Granada against Eibar (with Victorien Angban not in the squad) and performed much the same as he has so far in La Liga. Beginning out on the left, manager Paco Jemez moves him into a free central role for the last half an hour of matches and allows him to start dictating play. With Elche a man light due to a sending off, he saw a lot of ball and had a decent chance to score with five minutes remaining, but sliced it wide and Eibar were able to steal a 2-1 win with the final kick of the contest.

Italy

Mario Pašalić and Juan Cuadrado were unused substitutes for Milan and Juventus respectively this weekend.

Belgium

It was a quiet one in the Pro League with Cristian Cuevas not cleared to make his second STVV debut and Islam Feruz getting twenty minutes from the bench on debut for Mouscron, who lost 5-1 to Zulte Waregem. Matej Delač wasn’t involved once again, although at this stage with the club having won just once in six matches and shipping goals all over the place, it might make sense for them to look at him instead of the hapless Vagner…

Turkey

Kenneth Omeruo made his debut for newly-promoted Alanyaspor on Saturday night and helped them keep a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw away to Genclerbirligi. The Nigerian arrives with a year of Super League experience at Kasimpasa and will prove an asset in their bid to avoid an immediate return to the second tier.

Colombia

There was no Joao Rodriguez again for Sante Fe as he remains on the fringes of the first team.

Brazil

Wallace didn’t feature for Gremio at Coritiba on Thursday but will hope for better at home to Palmeiras later tonight (Sunday).