The Loan Report: August 1-4

Posted By on August 4, 2019

It’s that time again.

The tenth season of the Loan Report gets under way here at TheChels.net and it promises to be no less exciting now than it has been over a decade that has seen Chelsea launch England’s most expansive programme of developing young talent both for performance and for profit. A wide-reaching and often controversial programme, it has been the source of criticism and inspiration, as a number of Premier League clubs have followed the club’s lead in not just loaning out key youngsters, but in building an infrastructure around them to both manage and improve them while playing in all corners of the world.

With that in mind, we’ll kick off the 2019-20 season with a look at the in-house changes down at Cobham.

Headliners

Eddie Newton has looked after the loan programme for the better part of the last seven years, initially having the role somewhat thrust upon him when Roberto Di Matteo was sacked by Roman Abramovich, with club staff wanting to keep him around. The team around him eventually expanded to include Paulo Ferreira, Tore Andre Flo and Christoph Lollichon, and as Newton this summer moves up to join Frank Lampard’s first team coaching staff, another pair of former Blues have arrived to help fill the void.

Carlo Cudicini has been formally appointed as Loan Technical Coach in the wake of Newton’s promotion and, while Ferreira is expected to assume more of a lead role due to his experience in the department, there will be a concerted push to help the ex-Italy goalkeeper develop his coaching credentials. Claude Makelele, meanwhile, has been drafted in as a Young Player Technical Mentor; a loosely-defined role that will see him work with the younger generations in a similar manner to the way in which Petr Cech will align with the first team. Ensuring that there is a regular and meaningful dialogue between the various levels of football at Chelsea is an important aspect of building towards consistent success; it’s something that has been missing for a lot of time over the last few years, and it’s a positive sign that these measures are now being taken.

England

Championship

With the Premier League not kicking off until next weekend, the Football League had the stage all to itself as the new season bloomed into life, and it came with lots of new faces in new places. Conor Gallagher, the reigning Academy Player of the Year, joined Charlton Athletic on Friday to mark his first move into the senior game, and made his Addicks debut late in their win at Blackburn less than day after arriving in South London. Manager Lee Bowyer is positive about the sort of impact he can make at The Valley.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaLoanArmy/status/1157713705045413889

Jake Clarke-Salter is back in England after solid building year at Vitesse, and will spend at least the next five months with Birmingham City, in what is planned to be a full season loan at St Andrews. He was an unused substitute in their surprise win at Brentford.

Dujon Sterling’s move to Wigan was completed too late for him to be a realistic option for Wigan against Championship returnees Cardiff, but Matt Miazga was straight back in for Reading as he started his second spell at the Madejski Stadium with a good display in their 3-1 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday. Capturing the American centre-back was a major coup for the hard-up Royals this summer and, although they lost to the Owls, he was imposing in the air as ever and will be a key player in their fight to stay up this term.

League One

Luke McCormick’s first venture into the professional game has taken him up to Shrewsbury Town, where he started with an energetic 53-minute outing against title favourites Portsmouth. Manager Sam Ricketts admitted that he chose to start the 20 year-old for the impact he had made in pre-season and, despite an early withdrawal, there are plenty of reasons to expect him to play early and often in Shropshire.

Fellow Development Squad stand-out Richard Nartey has also ventured out for the first time, signing for Burton Albion, where Brad Collins was impressive in goal last time out. A strong pre-season was interrupted by injury, however, and he was only fit to take his place on the bench in their 1-0 defeat to Ipswich on Saturday.

Scotland

Nathan Baxter’s impressive career to date has taken him from the Metropolitan Police to Solihull Moors, to Woking and Yeovil, and now north of the border to Scottish Premiership newcomers Ross County but, unfortunately, a shoulder injury sustained in pre-season will rule him out of the first couple of months of action. After having a successful operation and beginning rehab, he was present at Dingwall to watch his new team-mates open the campaign with a 3-0 win over Hamilton.

Netherlands

Charly Musonda is back at Vitesse after seeing his 18-19 season almost entirely wiped out by injury and, in playing the last eleven minutes of their highly-entertaining 2-2 draw against champions Ajax, he equalled his playing time from last term on the opening day. In what is a make-or-break season for the Belgian, a strong showing in Arnhem could easily reignite his career, and take him back onto the path so many expected him to take while shining bright as a teenager.

Iké Ugbo joined second-tier side Roda JC on Saturday and will look to make his debut at home to Almere City on Friday night. Having struggled to make a proper impression at Barnsley, Milton Keynes or Scunthorpe in the English lower leagues, a change of scenery could be just the ticket for a player who has always scored goals.

Brazil

We pick up on Nathan‘s spell at Atlético-MG again after leaving him in May; an extension was signed to keep him there until the end of December, but playing time has been just as hard to come by, and he was an unused substitute in their Copa Sudamericana clash with Botafogo on Thursday. Atlético hosed Cruzeiro in league action shortly after this report was published; Nathan scored a late goal we’ll cover in next week’s update.

Elsewhere

Ethan Ampadu and Lewis Baker are gearing up for a new Bundesliga season, which kicks off on August 16th, and they do so at markedly different stages in their careers. Ampadu, 18 and out on his first loan, joins a youthful RB Leipzig squad aiming to make a mark in the Champions League, while the 24 year-old Baker has a year to impress at Fortuna Dusseldorf, who have a €10m option to make his stay a permanent one if he impresses there.

Victor Moses remains at Fenerbahce on an eighteen-month agreement and starts his new season next weekend, while Mario Pašalić is back with Atalanta for a second go and will be a part of their Champions League debut run. Serie A doesn’t begin until the last weekend of the month, though, so we won’t hear much from him for a while yet.

Alvaro Morata remains with Atlético Madrid and, with a deal having been struck for his permanent move there next summer, he will not be featured in this season’s Loan Reports.

Who else is to come?

With less than a week left in the transfer window for Premier League and Championship clubs, there is a certain urgency to bring players in, while the rest of the country and Europe have the remainder of August to finalise their plans. To that end, any of all of Tiémoué Bakayoko, Kenedy, FIkayo Tomori, Izzy Brown, Trevoh Chalobah, Michael Hector, Jacob Maddox, Kenneth Omeruo, Danilo Pantic, Lucas Piazon and Baba Rahman could find themselves back on the loan trail, although several are also exploring permanent departures. We’ve said farewell this summer to a host of those who joined us on these pages in years gone by, and there is every chance those goodbyes will be extended to several more before we turn the pages of the diary into September.

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.