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Chelsea’s all-time loan army hall of fame, shame, honour and infamy

By The Pride of London Staff

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Joshua McEachran (C) of Chelsea in action against Paul Pogba of Manchester United during the FA Youth Cup sponsored by E.on semi final first leg match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on April 10, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 10: Joshua McEachran (C) of Chelsea in action against Paul Pogba of Manchester United during the FA Youth Cup sponsored by E.on semi final first leg match between Chelsea and Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on April 10, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images) /
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BORDEAUX, FRANCE – JUNE 10: Romelu Lukaku (R) and Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium warm up during the Belgium Training Session held at Chateau du Haillan on June 10, 2016 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
BORDEAUX, FRANCE – JUNE 10: Romelu Lukaku (R) and Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium warm up during the Belgium Training Session held at Chateau du Haillan on June 10, 2016 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images) /

3. The Belgian Trio – George Perry

To be a fly on the wall in the Belgian national team training ground when the topic turns to time spent in Chelsea’s loan army. Kevin de Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku and Thibaut Courtois each served their time before approaching massive stardom under divergent circumstances.

Kevin de Bruyne will always be the one that got away. The only poetic justice is that Kevin de Bruyne threatens Jose Mourinho’s Premier League ambitions at Manchester United just as much as he does Chelsea’s. Knowing Mourinho, though, he may take consolation in knowing that he may be in pain, but at least Chelsea are, too. He is a spiteful soul.

Mourinho aside, de Bruyne shows just how wrong Chelsea can be in assessing a player’s talent. For all the players that the Blues keep under contract for some impossibly vague potentiality, they were so certain that de Bruyne would never have a role at Chelsea that they sold him to Wolfsburg. Obviously, he proved the Blues wrong.

Chelsea at least knew what they were losing when they sold Romelu Lukaku to Everton. Manchester United and their crony Mino Raiola thoroughly out-gamed everyone at Stamford Bridge to secure Lukaku in the 2017 transfer window. They were too clever by half, since far less scheming was necessary to hoodwink the Blues, and the Blues will likely get much greater value from Alvaro Morata. If there is a bright side to that debacle, Chelsea will now always insist on a buy-back clause along with a sell-on clause.

Thibaut Courtois had the most atypical loan experience in history. Upon buying him, the Blues immediately dispatched him to Atletico Madrid. They did not keep him on the bench, nor drag him around a few lower leagues or lower clubs before “promoting” him to a top loan. He did not dress for a single game for Chelsea until he was in line to be the starting goalkeeper.

It’s almost as if Chelsea had a plan for him from the beginning, and they stuck with that plan, yielding a near-perfect outcome. Coincidence and a heap of luck is more likely.

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