Gael Kakuta has been front and centre in The Loan Report for much of 2012 and the young Frenchman continued his fine spell at Dijon this week with another goal. Kakuta’s fourth strike of his brief stay in Burgundy had threatened to cause a major upset as the hosts led table-topping Montpellier, but a late equaliser deprived Patrice Carteron’s side of all three points. The game offered little to write…
Chelsea’s Under-18s staged the latest in an impressive series of comebacks on Saturday morning to earn a point against Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues found themselves two goals down at the break and whilst they weren’t quite able to finish the turnaround, second half strikes by Lewis Baker and Ismail Seremba saw them take a deserved share of the spoils. Some regular faces from the youth cup run were absent ahead…
Chelsea have been linked with a move for fifteen year-old Colombian striker Joao Rodriguez according to reports in South America this week. The forward, who will turn 16 in May, is amongst the most prolific goalscorers in his age group in the entire continent and particularly caught the eye of Blues scouts last November, when he scored four times in the Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-15. That was the latest in a…
The recent hive of activity on the loan front cooled somewhat in the last seven days and the latest instalment of The Loan Report is, as a consequence, a much lower key affair. Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois had the highest profile week of anyone temporarily away from Stamford Bridge as he first kept a clean sheet for Atlético Madrid against Lazio to see Los Colchoneros into the last sixteen of…
After coming back to win from three goals down on Wednesday night at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea played the role of comeback kids once again on Saturday morning as a brace from Amin Affane and a late winner from Patrick Bamford saw them twice come from behind to win 3-2 at Arsenal. First half strikes from Josh Rees and Anthony Jeffrey had Steve Bould’s side in the ascendancy but the Blues…
Chelsea’s remarkable FA Youth Cup run continued in the most unlikely of circumstances as they turned a 3-0 half time deficit into a dramatic, late, 4-3 victory. First half strikes from David Morgan and Jordan Palmer-Samuels sandwiched a Nathan Aké own goal to leave Eoin Jess’ boys 3-0 up and firmly in control of affairs, but an astonishing second half saw Lucas Piazon get a foothold in the game before…
A much-changed and much younger Chelsea Reserve team won a hard-fought local derby against West London rivals Fulham on Monday afternoon as goals from Romelu Lukaku, Ismail Seremba and Patrick Bamford secured a 3-2 victory. Fulham twice responded from behind with strikes courtesy of first-teamers Kerim Frei and Pajtim Kasami but were undone late in the game by Bamford, who won a disputed penalty kick which he converted to mark…
A highly productive week on the loan front, perhaps the most impressive of the season, saw Gael Kakuta’s finest hour in the professional game and a goal for Kevin de Bruyne amongst a number of positive events over the past seven days. After sitting on the bench away to Carlo Ancelotti’s PSG in midweek French Cup action, Kakuta was restored to the Dijon starting line-up for the weekend home match…
One of Chelsea’s youngest Under-18 line-ups of the season went down 3-1 on Saturday morning to a Southampton team who got their business done early. A pair of talented England Under-17 internationals did the damage as the Saints were three goals to the good inside eight minutes. First, a free kick from the right was beautifully delivered by Luke Shaw and headed home at the far post before Shaw himself…
For the second round in a row Chelsea kept their FA Youth Cup hopes alive courtesy of a penalty shootout after a dramatic 120 minutes against West Ham United. Lewis Baker’s opening goal highlighted a sterling first half performance by the Blues but they were pegged back shortly before the break. Islam Feruz restored the lead but Blair Turgott drew the Hammers level again before Elliott Lee’s stoppage time strike…