Andreas Christensen is the loan army success story Chelsea FC have been promising fans and young players for years. Which loanees left the biggest mark on fans at a club where they played no more than a handful of games?
In recent seasons, Chelsea’s loan army would make up a top-four club in most leagues around the world. Young prospects, mid-career hangers-on and random players that Chelsea have under contract but no one really thinks about all ply their trade elsewhere hoping for a call back to Stamford Bridge or a permanent transfer to a forever home.
Here are some Chelsea loanees who, for better or worse, have a special place in the history of the loan army and our hearts.
1. Josh McEachran – Ajitesh Rasgotra
It’s time for a tragic story. One of a young man who tasted first-team football early, only to have it torn away from him.
Josh McEachran was probably the first high-profile failure of the Chelsea loan system. The youngster was widely regarded as one of the most promising players in the country. Hell, even Real Madrid wanted to sign him when he was 16 years old.
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However, McEachran rejected the chance to move to Spain, sticking with the Blues instead. Unfortunately, it was probably the biggest mistake in his life.
The Englishman trained with the first-team for much of the 2009/10 campaign, despite still being under 18. He was then named to the club’s Champions League squad for the following season and even made the bench. McEachran made nine Premier League appearances in that season with Carlo Ancelotti taking a liking to him.
That would be his peak.
Andre Villas-Boas then took charge at Stamford Bridge in a notorious reign and McEachran embarked on the first of what would eventually be five loan spells. He permanently cut his ties with Chelsea in 2015 to restart his career at Brentford.
Fortunately, McEachran is still only 24 and he has been flourishing since his departure. From the highs to the lows, the Englishman could still make a name for himself in the Premier League. Let’s hope he does.
2. Hernan Crespo – Abhishek Pancholi
Although it might look like we’re playing fast and loose with the rules: Hernan Crespo. Yeah, that’s right. A personal favorite, the Argentina striker arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2003 and left a lot of people giddy with excitement.
His exploits at Parma and Lazio were stuff of legend, and his incredible power and technique would have been ideal for the Premier League. Or so we thought.
His first season in England was, by no means, a failure of Fernando Torres-ian proportions. Crespo managed to score a perfectly respectable 12 goals and did not look out of place amongst the newly assembled star cast at Chelsea. And this was despite his well-documented difficulties in adapting to his new home.
However, Chelsea’s modern era truly started with the arrival of one Jose Mourinho in 2004, who brought in his own talismanic striker, Chelsea legend Didier Drogba. This allowed Crespo to return to Italy on loan, with AC Milan, where he scored twice in that ridiculous Champions League final against Liverpool.
With loans, there’s always the hope that a player will come back stronger and become an important part of his parent club. Crespo spent the entire 2005/06 season with Chelsea, but it was abundantly clear his personal issues were taking a toll on him. In an interview with FourFourTwo magazine, Crespo says:
"I had some very difficult personal problems during my time at Chelsea. My family lost two children. Emotionally, it was very, very hard to go through all of that on a personal level. Professionally, it was great. The fans were unbelievable."
And so, at the end of the 2005-06 season, Crespo got his wish and returned to Italy once more, this time with Inter Milan. The loan would last another two years, at the end of which Crespo’s Chelsea contract would come to an end.
One of the greatest strikers of the modern era, it was a shame the Chelsea faithful never really had the opportunity to see him in his element. But we’ll always welcome him back, with his song – Hello, hello! Hernan Crespo, Hernan Crespo!
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.
4. Ruben Loftus-Cheek – Charlie Dawson
Ruben Loftus-Cheek could finally get his first start for the England’s senior team this international break, after dominant displays in the youth teams from the U16’s through to the U21’s.
Loftus-Cheek has managed just under a goal every other game since the U19’s and has dominated at every level due to his power, size and technical ability. But has yet to fulfill his promise for Chelsea’s and England’s senior team.
This season Ruben Loftus-Cheek has found himself at the almost record breaking (731 minutes without a goal until they played Chelsea) Crystal Palace, where he has been a shining light in an overall dim team. While at Palace, Loftus-Cheek has become the main attacking outlet, driving the ball up the pitch and creating chances through sheer will and power if nothing else.
Loftus-Cheek played seven of 11 Premier League games so far this season, creating chances each game, which the likes of Christian Benteke almost always fail to convert. Loftus-Cheek has a ludicrously high potential, but has often failed to convince in a Chelsea a first team shirt. Critics often state that he lacks effort and desire on the pitch to succeed. Loftus-Cheek must rise to the N’Golo Kante level of tenacity and drive, a player who proves energy and effort can achieve more than any natural gifts.
Should Ruben Loftus-Cheek continue his development in the Premier League, work hard for the team, and do what is asked of him, then the Chelsea man will no doubt be an excellent Premier League player for years to come.
England need a two-way midfielder capable of carrying the ball, winning battles and linking the defence and attack. Currently England’s only real options are Danny Drinkwater, Harry Winks, and more one-dimensional midfielders like Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier. England need Ruben Loftus-Cheek to be the player he has promised to be. The space is there for him. He just needs to prove he deserves the spot, and live up to his own hype.
5. Matej Delac – George Perry
When John Terry took his leave of Chelsea at the end of the 2016/17 season, a frequent question was who would replace him as club captain. His fellow Englishman and vice-captain Gary Cahill? The understated, diligent consummate professional Cesar Azpilicueta? Cesc Fabregas, the elder statesman who proved his willingness to fight for his place?
Inconspicuously missing from the conversation was the player who replaced Terry as the longest-serving Chelsea man: goalkeeper Matej Delac. Chelsea signed Delac in 2010, well before they welcomed Cahill, Azpilicueta or Fabregas to Stamford Bridge. In his seven years with the club, he not only made zero appearances. He was never even named to the bench with the first-team, reserves, U23’s or anything else.
Delac found himself in some sort of bureaucratic hell with his work permit. While Chelsea and other teams across Europe routinely signed Delac’s fellow Bosnians (his nation of birth) and Croats (the nation he represents in international play), Delac could never secure a work permit to play in England.
[Insert political / governmental take of your choice here]
And so Delac served 10 loans in seven years, including two at Sarajevo and two different levels of Vitoria de Guimaraes. His last two seasons were his most productive as he registered 26 and 28 appearances for Sarajevo and Royal Excel Mouscron, respectively.
Alas, Delac has decided that the time has come for him to shelf his dreams playing for Chelsea and seek a permanent transfer. Whether he is giving up on displacing Thibaut Courtois, Willy Caballero, Eduardo, Jamal Blackman and Marcin Bulka, or on negotiating the Croatian-English work permit labyrinth, Delac will soon cede the crown as senior-most Blue.
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Hopefully he can at least get a temporary visa – perhaps as a tourist – to visit Stamford Bridge for what would surely be the most awkward halftime tribute send-off in football history.