Chelsea’s loan contingent grew by one this past week, whilst another got his season underway in impressive form as we check up on all the latest news on Blues youngsters away from Stamford Bridge.
Tomas Kalas may only be 18 but he’s already had quite the busy career. Having only arrived in London back in January after spending the first half of last season with former club Sigma Olomouc, he’s now on the move again.
On Monday he joined Vitesse Arnhem on loan for the season, becoming the fourth Blues player to head to the Gelredome since the start of last season. He will take the number 2 shirt and is set to be a regular feature at right-back, but remained an unused substitute on Friday night in a heavy defeat away to free-scoring Ajax.
Kalas is expected to be joined by Mexican forward Ulises Dávila, who signed for Chelsea on Saturday night. Dávila will now head from London to the Netherlands and will join an exciting strike force featuring Bony Wilfried and Gio Chanturia.
In Spain, Thibault Courtois made his debut for Atlético Madrid in a midweek Europa League qualifier and kept a clean sheet in what was a quiet affair for him, but he did make one spectacular save late in the match.
The Belgian teenager followed it up with another shutout on Sunday lunchtime as La Liga finally got underway, but Atlético were unable to find a way through themselves and drew 0-0 against Osasuna.
There was some initial concern that Courtois would be playing second fiddle to Joel, another young stopper at the Vicente Calderón, but those fears have been allayed by strong early showings from the 19 year-old, who promises much for the future.
In Germany, Jeffrey Bruma dropped to the bench for Hamburg after a less than stellar start defensively, but Michael Oenning’s outfit still shipped four in a seven-goal thriller at the Imtech Arena against Koln on Saturday.
Bruma, who now joins up with the senior Dutch squad, lost his place to new signing Slobodan Rajkovic, but based on the team’s opening to the season he could easily be back in favour next week as Hamburg look to turn things around quickly.
On domestic shores, there was double action for both Ben Gordon and Sam Walker as the Carling Cup moved into the third round, but neither Peterborough nor Northampton were able to advance after midweek defeats.
Gordon came on as a half-time substitute as Peterborough went down 2-0 at home to Middlesbrough, whilst Walker bore the brunt of four Premier League quality finishes as Wolves put the Cobblers to the sword at the Sixfields Stadium.
Neither had much better luck on Saturday, with Gordon spending Posh’s 2-0 defeat at Brighton on the bench and Walker being left with no chance for either of Morecambe’s two goals (one of which was a penalty) in another defeat for Gary Johnson’s men.
Things were better for Milan Lalkovic, however, as he claimed an assist for Doncaster’s first home goal of the 2011-12 season. Taking the ball from a short corner, he swung a cross towards the far post where James Hayter headed Rovers’ equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Bristol City.
Lalkovic had missed the club’s midweek cup tie as Chelsea denied him permission to feature, should they want to use him later in the competition themselves.
With the transfer window closing on Wednesday, expect the likes of Matej Delac, Rhys Taylor and Jacob Mellis to find new homes for the duration of the coming season. Any moves which take place after the close of the international transfer window must be domestic and are classed as short-term, maximum 93 day deals.