Chelsea FC have a unique transfer policy when it comes to youth. While many teams look to the youth ranks to reinforce their squad from time to time and only buy young players with that intention, the Blues have taken advantage of the system to create a loan army to help fund the club for the future. If they find a diamond amongst that rough, as they appear to have done with Kenedy and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, then all the better but it is not the only aim.
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Manchester City’s recent young signing, Turkish striker Enes Unal, revealed that he did not join Chelsea FC because of that loan-based transfer policy. He told the Turkish Football Federation’s site, as quoted by TalkSport, that the number of loanees sent out by Chelsea had turned him off joining the club.
"“One of the other teams that wanted me was Chelsea but I decided to join Manchester City because they had shown more interest and were really keen in bringing me in. Chelsea have around 50 players out on loan whereas City have about 15 and these are players like [Edin] Dzeko and [Stevan] Jovetic. City are investing a lot in young players and have plans to use them in the future.”Source: TalkSport"
While some Chelsea fans may not like to hear it, there is a great deal of truth to Unal’s statement. The club will miss out on certain promising young players because they see the road to the first team littered with obstacles in the form of consecutive loans year after year. Although Unal was sent on loan to Genk after signing for £3m from Bursaspor, he can look to the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho and Patrick Roberts as young talents who have been included in the first team this season. While City is not renowned for its youth academy in the current era, they are taking steps and making investments towards building a top-tier academy and are looking to fill it with top-tier talent.
Chelsea fans should not be concerned however just because the club missed out on one promising youngster. It is of course impossible for the club to sign every youth player that shows potential and even if they did it would just lead to more grumbling from critics who think the club is being unethical. Some players dream of playing for Chelsea and will go through a series of loans to prove that and some do not.
In the case of Unal, he saw that there were less players between him and getting to the first team at City than at Chelsea and he made what he feels was the right decision for his career. City may one day have a loan army as big as Chelsea’s, and with their vast resources it is certainly possible, but for now Blues’ fans will have to hear more and more stories like this of players snubbing the club for more straightforward opportunities.
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