It’s a been a slow and steady return to life on loan for Chelsea’s far-flung masses, with the headlines this week taken by Mario Pašalić and Matt Miazga.
Headliners
This will be Pašalićs last-ever appearance in a Loan Report, for this week Atalanta officially triggered their option to buy the Croatian midfielder, bringing an end to a six-year affiliation with Chelsea. After joining from Hajduk Split in 2014, Pašalić was loaned to Elche, Monaco, Milan and Spartak Moscow before joining Atalanta in 2018, where he has spent two highly successful seasons helping establish the club as a Champions League-calibre entity. A €15m deal represents tremendous quality for them and, while Chelsea might be disappointed that work permits in particular meant that he was never able to push for a career in London, the accumulated income from six years on loan means the initial €3.5m outlay has been more than repaid.
It was a less auspicious weekend for Miazga, who was sent off at the end of Reading’s 2-1 defeat against Derby County. Involved in a spat with Tom Lawrence for much of the match, he was dismissed for an act of violent conduct immediately after the final whistle and will be suspended for three of the Royals’ last seven fixtures.
England
Premier League
Danny Drinkwater was back in the Aston Villa matchday squad against Wolves this weekend but was not one of the five replacements called upon by Dean Smith.
Championship
Izzy Brown got the better of his loanee head-to-head against Conor Gallagher on Saturday as he came on for the last half an hour of Luton’s 1-0 win at Swansea; a win that keeps the Hatters in with a chance of avoiding relegation. It was his assist with a brilliant cross that helped secure the points in a match where Gallagher played ninety minutes and Marc Guehi was an unused substitute.
Jake Clarke-Salter played 87 minutes in a humdinger of a match between Birmingham and Hull that finished 3-3 and probably didn’t quite show him to be at his best.
Trevoh Chalobah was a second-half substitute as Huddersfield lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest to drop into the relegation zone, while Wigan are still without the injured Dujon Sterling.
Germany
The Bundesliga season drew to finished on Saturday as Ethan Ampadu’s injury kept him out once again. RB Leipzig still have business to attend to in the Champions League in August when the Welshman will hopefully be fit to play.
Spain
Kenedy didn’t play for Getafe against Valladolid in midweek and is not expected to extend his loan at Getafe beyond this week.
Baba Rahman is still injured at Mallorca.
Italy
Davide Zappacosta returned to action this week after suffering a torn ACL last September; he came on for the last half an hour of Roma’s midweek win over Sampdoria and then played from start to finish in Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Milan.
Victor Moses saw 75 minutes of action as Inter drew 3-3 with Sassuolo on Wednesday then played the last twenty minutes away to Parma on Sunday. He helped them to turn the match around; entering at 1-0 down, it was his assist for Alessandro Bastoni that made it 2-1 and claimed three important points in the race for the title.
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Portugal
Lucas Piazon played 77 minutes for Rio Ave against Vitória Setúbal in midweek; the 2-1 win keeping them in with a shout of a late European qualification push.
Statistics
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