Lucas Piazon is Chelsea’s next chance to prove the value of the loan army

Five-time Chelsea loanee Lucas Piazon is in his second temporary year at Fulham. Apparently being close to Stamford Bridge does not mean the club is any more communicative about players’ future.

Lucas Piazon needs only one more game to cross Chelsea’s mystical threshold of 150 senior-level games. Given his injury history no one should take this for granted. But regardless of the number, Piazon has punched every ticket on Chelsea’s loan card. He cobbled together his 149 games at six teams covering four leagues and three countries. He has his nominal appearances at Chelsea, the requisite loan to Vitesse, the always-helpful spell in Bundesliga and two stints in the Championship.

Piazon is also a left winger, a position the Blues need to reinforce this summer. Even if Pedro stays, he is past his time as a Premier League starter. If (big if) Eden Hazard stays, Chelsea will need a proper left winger if Antonio Conte stays with Hazard as false-nine / shadow striker.

All signs point to a long-awaited, arguably long-overdue first-team breakthrough for Lucas Piazon. Which pretty much ensures Chelsea will send him back out a few more times while overpaying for a run-of-the-mill replacement.

Piazon, though, will be among the last to know. He knows the drill, which involves rolling along with a lot of uncertainty.

"Usually what happens is that I end up going back to Chelsea, in July I’ll present myself there, and then we’ll see… I don’t know, maybe I stay here at Fulham. I’m already here for the second year on loan. Anything can happen, actually. I have a contract with Chelsea for two more seasons, I renewed at the start of the season for three more, so at the end of this season I still have two more. So let’s see, let’s see. – Evening Standard"

This is a textbook, almost too-good-to-check example of Chelsea mishandling and misusing their loan system. Only two options should be on the table. At 24 years old, Piazon is at the decisive stage of his career. As Barrett pointed out recently, Chelsea derail an athlete’s career by keeping him in the loan system past age 23. This summer they must either offer him a place in the first-team or sell him to his forever home so he can get on with his career.

Beyond his accumulation of games, Piazon is coming off a two-year spell at a single club. That is also a significant milestone for a loanee, one that set the stage for Andreas Christensen’s ascent to the first-team and starting XI. Very few loanees in recent years have had that advantage, and fewer have done so with Piazon’s first-team experience and time with Chelsea.

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Fulham have nearly secured their place in the Championship’s promotion play-offs. Piazon is tied for third at Fulham for goal-production with four goals and four assists. He has accomplished this on two-thirds the playing time of Aboubakar Kamara and one-third the playing time of Oliver Norwood.

Piazon deserves to play and is ready to play in the Premier League this season. He has every required attribute of a returning loanee, and matches one of Chelsea’s most pressing needs almost exactly. The Blues should bring him into the top side of the club he has served for so long.

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But if they choose not to, they owe it to him to sell him to a club who will. Fulham would happily keep him in their corner of west London.