Chelsea will start sending players out on loan at earlier ages than they have previously. Head of youth development Neil Bath said it is a necessary move to ensure players have the senior experience they need to play in Chelsea’s first team.
Eden Hazard played 147 games for Lille in Ligue 1 before signing for Chelsea in 2012. According to Chelsea’s head of youth development Neil Bath, that is about the minimum necessary for a young player to earn a spot in the Blues’ first team.
Bath specifically cited Hazard’s pre-Chelsea experience when talking about the club’s loan strategy. The academy will start loaning their top players earlier, possibly forgoing more youth trophies. This will ensure players reach their mid-20s with the requisite amount of senior-level experience to compete for a place at Stamford Bridge.
"[W]e want to push our young players to experience the senior game at an even earlier age… If a player goes out at 18 or 19 years old, that means they will be 22 years old before being able to really compete for a regular place in the team and you can see that pathway with the likes of Ryan Bertrand and Nathaniel Chalobah. – Chelsea FC"
Ryan Bertand made 146 appearances for five loan clubs from 2006-2011. He then made 57 appearances for Chelsea before two more loans and his ultimate transfer to Southampton. Nathaniel Chalobah is well behind Bertrand’s match count, playing in “only” 106 games for six loan clubs before entering Chelsea’s squad this year.
Chelsea’s top loan system success of last season, Victor Moses, adhered to Bath’s prescription. Moses played 132 games for Crystal Palace and Wigan before transferring to Chelsea. He then played in 69 matches for Liverpool, Stoke and West Ham. That brought his total to 201 before becoming a regular in Antonio Conte’s starting XI last season.
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This summer’s top transfer target, Romelu Lukaku, played just over 70 games for Anderlecht in his pre-Chelsea career. He accumulated 66 appearances for West Brom and Everton to go with a smattering of Chelsea games before his transfer to the Toffees. Now with 119 appearances at Everton, Chelsea are ready to break the bank to bring him back.
Neil Bath did not so much announce a new policy as reveal and affirm the way Chelsea already do things. The main question, then, is why they have waited so long to loan out young players. Bath spoke of “not undervaluing our programme back at Cobham,” but the whole purpose of “programme back at Cobham” is to prepare players for the senior level.
Few loanees are anywhere close to 150 senior-level appearances. Lewis Baker and the now-departed Bertrand Traore have fewer than 100 appearances. Tammy Abraham has under 50. Marco van Ginkel and Tomas Kalas may come closest, but they are on few shortlists for making the first team.
Bath’s comments and a review of the current loanees mean the club are several years away from the long-awaited, nearly-mystical “next John Terry.” By publicly stating club policy, though, fans, pundits and the players themselves can better temper their expectations for the youth-to-first-team pipeline.
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Victor Moses and Nathaniel Chalobah will carry the academy and loan system banner for the foreseeable future. More 19-year old Blues will head out on loan, with a long road back to Stamford Bridge. And many more transfer sales will have very rigourous buy-back clauses. The Romelu Lukaku situation may become the norm in practice, if not in price-tag.