Another transfer window has come and (thankfully) gone, and there was some loan business in the final week of trading that headlines our latest catch-up on everything concerning the Loan Army.
Headliners
Two Development Squad players ventured out on their first career loan moves and both are heading to mainland Europe in doing so. George McEachran will link up with Dutch Eerste Divisie (that’s the second tier to you and me) leaders SC Cambuur, while Charlie Brown is on his way to Belgian second division outfit Union SG, owned by Brighton supremo Tony Bloom.
https://twitter.com/SCCambuurLwd/status/1222807353399173120
https://twitter.com/UnionStGilloise/status/1223245265043365889
McEachran joins a Cambuur side that lead the table by two points from Volendam, while Juan Castillo’s Jong Ajax can close that gap to a single point on Monday night against Go Ahead Eagles. Jong Ajax cannot be promoted to the Eredivisie though and so, with the top two teams going up automatically, Cambuur have their fate very much in their own hands. McEachran will add quality to their midfield and will hopefully make his debut this coming Friday against MVV having been an unused substitute against NEC Nijmegen barely 24 hours after signing.
Brown, meanwhile, will ply his trade just over 200 miles away in Belgium, where he joins a Union SG team in an interesting situation. There are five matches left of their second tier schedule before the Belgian football structure enters a chaotic playoff stage that runs through until the end of the season. The top six teams in the aggregate table from the opening and closing tournament – and Union SG are guaranteed to be among these six – join the bottom ten teams from the Belgian Pro League in a playoff stage that sees them split into four groups of four. The winner of each group goes into a Semi Final and the overall winner of the playoffs plays the third-placed team from the ‘top six’ section of the Belgian league playoffs for a Europa League berth.
So, while Brown appears on the face of things to be playing at a lower standard than some might have expected, he will get to face Belgian top-flight teams after an initial settling-in period, and as unlikely as it might be, will be challenging for the right to play in Europe next season, and that’s not bad at all.
Tying up a few loose ends from deadline day:
– Jacob Maddox has joined Southampton for the rest of the season, where he’ll play for their Under-23 team, and there’s an option to buy in the deal too.
– Luke McCormick has returned to Chelsea and will likely remain with the title-challenging Development Squad.
– Lewis Baker is yet to find a new club but has some transfer windows still open to him, the most intriguing of which at this stage might be the MLS, which is open for business from February 12th.
– Danilo Pantic’s stay at MOL Fehervar in Hungary is over and he too is on the lookout for a new club. The Serbian window shuts on February 7th if he harbours hopes of a move back to Partizan for the fourth time. The Russian window is open until February 21st.
England
Premier League
Danny Drinkwater was not involved as Aston Villa beat Leicester to reach the League Cup Final in midweek, nor did he feature in their league defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday.
Championship
There was a double helping of Championship action this week, with mixed fortunes all round. Trevoh Chalobah, for example, was in good form as Huddersfield beat rivals Hull, but was on the losing side four days later as Town went down 3-2 to Fulham, where our man played 83 minutes before making way for a former Chelsea academy player in Andy King.
Izzy Brown returned from injury to help Luton over the line against Derby, playing 22 minutes in a much-needed 3-2 win, and then got half an hour more away to former club West Brom. Luton, bottom of the table, lost that one 2-0 to the league leaders.
Conor Gallagher played his part in Swansea’s equaliser in a 1-1 draw away to a Preston side for whom former blue Scott Sinclair opened the scoring, with Marc Guehi getting ninety more minutes at the back, while Jake Clarke-Salter – now firmly a fixture in the Birmingham team – helped to secure a big three points against promotion-chasing Nottingham Forest.
Matt Miazga suffered ankle ligament damage for Reading against Cardiff last weekend and will be out for some weeks, while Dujon Sterling’s hamstring problem is worse than first thought and he looks set for an extended spell on the sidelines at Wigan.
League One
Richard Nartey was back in the fold from the start for Burton this week after shaking off his recent knocks; the Brewers drew 2-2 at Wimbledon on Tuesday with him in the team, but he took a back seat away to leaders Rotherham on Saturday, and watched his team-mates go down to a narrow 3-2 defeat.
Jamal Blackman was in goal for Bristol Rovers in a 1-1 draw at Bolton and a 2-1 defeat to Coventry City.
League Two
Josh Grant played for Plymouth in their 2-2 draw against Crawley in midweek, but picked up a knock thereafter, and missed the weekend win over Newport.
Italy
Victor Moses made his Inter debut with a quarter of an hour off the bench in a 2-1 win against Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia in midweek. On Sunday, he played a very impressive 83 minutes away to Udinese, a match Inter won 2-0.
Mario Pašalić played 54 minutes and was booked as Atalanta drew 2-2 with Genoa on Sunday.
Davide Zappacosta is still injured.
Spain
Injuries have essentially wrecked Baba Rahman’s career; the Ghanaian has made just 27 league starts in four years since exiting Chelsea, and now reportedly needs further knee surgery which is set to rule him out of the rest of the season on loan at Mallorca.
Kenedy was a stoppage-time substitute as Getafe won 2-0 way to Athletic Bilbao, his first involvement of any sort in two months.
Germany
Ethan Ampadu was an unused substitute for Leipzig, who drew 2-2 at home to Borussia Mönchengladbach.
France
Tiémoué Bakayoko was sent off as Monaco lost 3-1 to Nimes on Saturday; his poor tackle was correctly punished, and then led to team-mate Gelson Martins also receiving his marching orders for twice laying his hands on the referee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBH1pEa6RSo
Netherlands
Iké Ugbo was held scoreless again as struggling Roda drew 0-0 with TOP Oss in a battle of two Eerste Divisie basement dwellers.
Charly Musonda is still injured.
Portugal
Lucas Piazon was substituted at half time as Rio Ave fought back from 2-0 down to claim a draw against Familicao.
Scotland
Nathan Baxter and Ross County lost 2-0 to Rangers four days after a trip to Celtic; tough results, but incredible experiences for the young goalkeeper. Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Kilmarnock will have been far more of a disappointment, however.
Brazil
Nathan still isn’t fully fit enough to return to action for Atlético-MG.
Statistics
Started: August 1st 2019
Finished: August 1st 2020
| Player | Club | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe/Cont | Other | Mins Played | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |||
| Ethan Ampadu | RB Leipzig | 0 (3) | 0 | 1 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 297 | 2 (4) | 0 |
| Tiemoue Bakayoko | Monaco | 20 | 1 | 1 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1910 | 21 (1) | 1 |
| Lewis Baker | Fortuna Dusseldorf | 6 (1) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 562 | 7 (1) | 0 |
| Charlie Brown | Union SG | 2 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 152 | 2 (1) | 0 |
| Isaiah Brown | Luton Town | 16 (8) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1517 | 18 (8) | 1 |
| Juan Castillo | Ajax | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 1800 | 20 | 0 |
| Trevoh Chalobah | Huddersfield Town | 30 (6) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2923 | 30 (6) | 1 |
| Jake Clarke-Salter | Birmingham City | 18 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1873 | 23 | 1 |
| Danny Drinkwater | Burnley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 149 | 2 | 0 |
| Danny Drinkwater | Aston Villa | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 207 | 3 | 0 |
| Conor Gallagher | Charlton Athletic | 25 (1) | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2220 | 25 (1) | 6 |
| Conor Gallagher | Swansea City | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1847 | 21 | 0 |
| Josh Grant | Plymouth | 17 (5) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 (1) | 0 | 2075 | 23 (6) | 0 |
| Marc Guehi | Swansea City | 13 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1177 | 13 (1) | 0 |
| Kenedy | Getafe | 3 (16) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 (4) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 942 | 7 (20) | 3 |
| Jacob Maddox | Tranmere Rovers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 165 | 2 | 0 |
| Jacob Maddox | Southampton | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Luke McCormick | Shrewsbury Town | 4 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (2) | 0 | 382 | 5 (3) | 0 |
| George McEachran | Cambuur | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 0 (2) | 0 |
| Matt Miazga | Reading | 19 (1) | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1758 | 21 (1) | 2 |
| Victor Moses | Fenerbahce | 6 | 1 | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 514 | 6 (1) | 1 |
| Victor Moses | Inter | 4 (8) | 0 | 1 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 597 | 7 (10) | 0 |
| Charly Musonda | Vitesse Arnhem | 0 (3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 65 | 0 (3) | 0 |
| Richard Nartey | Burton Albion | 21 (6) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 (1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 (1) | 0 | 2049 | 23 (8) | 0 |
| Nathan | Atlético-MG | 9 (6) | 3 | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1174 | 13 (8) | 3 |
| Danilo Pantic | MOL Fehervar | 3 (4) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 412 | 6 (4) | 0 |
| Mario Pašalić | Atalanta | 20 (3) | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 (2) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2292 | 25 (4) | 7 |
| Lucas Piazon | Rio Ave | 13 (5) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1422 | 16 (5) | 4 |
| Baba Rahman | Mallorca | 1 (1) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 379 | 4 (1) | 0 |
| Dujon Sterling | Wigan Athletic | 7 (1) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 750 | 8 (1) | 0 |
| Iké Ugbo | Roda JC | 25 (2) | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2351 | 26 (2) | 13 |
| Davide Zappacosta | Roma | 3 (6) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 458 | 3 (6) | 0 |
| Total | 34460 | 382 (107) | 43 | |||||||||||
| Player | Club | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Mins Played | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Cln Sht | Apps | Cln Sht | Apps | Cln Sht | Apps | Cln Sht | Apps | Cln Sht | Apps | Cln Sht | |||
| Nathan Baxter | Ross County | 14 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1260 | 14 | 3 |
| Jamal Blackman | Vitesse Arnhem | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jamal Blackman | Bristol Rovers | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 810 | 9 | 2 |
| Total | 2070 | 23 | 5 | |||||||||||
Covid-19
Several league campaigns were curtailed earlier than expected due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. Numbers for those players are assumed to be as of the formal end of that respective season; whether the stats officially count or not, we will take them as having happened.