Chelsea’s loan army succeeds and fails in the exact same way

Chelsea controversially collect talented youth and send them across the world. The ways the system succeeds are also the ways it fails.

Chelsea’s loan system has two main goals. One is to develop players capable of playing for Chelsea. The other is to buy cheap yet talented players who can later be sold at a profit. In search of both goals, Chelsea cast a wide net and captured many talented youngsters from around the world. They were then loaned out to determine which goal they could fulfill. Even if the development goal fails, the profit goal rarely does.

But a hidden aspect of the loan army is how the players develop. The same event can become a success story just as easily as a failure.

Take Andreas Christensen and Thibaut Courtois, for instance. Chelsea acquired both at a young age as relative unknowns. Christensen spent some time at Chelsea’s academy and around the first team whereas Courtois did not. But the club gave both incredibly ambitious loans. The pair succeeded on those loans and found their way into the Chelsea team.

But Mario Pasalic also had ambitious loans. At AS Monaco and AC Milan he excelled. But for some reason, he could not break into the squad. He is now on loan to Spartak Moscow. A step down, to be sure, but still a higher quality loan than most will get.

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Another way is happening now with Jamal Blackman and Lewis Baker. Blackman was the starting keeper for most of the season before being dropped in the winter months. But he did not quit. He fought and and took his spot back. That is a valuable experience for a player that makes them better and shows their quality.

But not every player can do that. Lewis Baker was talked about in the same breath as Bundesliga and La Liga loans over the summer. Instead, he was loaned to Middlesbrough. That should have been an easy loan for him. Instead, he was dropped and rarely if ever plays now. The Blues could have recalled him or Blackman, but did not. Blackman fought his way back whereas Baker has disappeared.

Yet another way the system can fail and succeed is momentum. Occasionally, Chelsea need to loan higher quality players who can contribute, such as Michy Batshuayi and Charly Musonda. It is not that the players are not ready. They simply need game time and momentum to make it at Chelsea.

As such, they sent Batshuayi to Dortmund. As expected, he is the starting striker there. That momentum can be flipped into Chelsea starts next year.

On the other hand, things have not gone so well for Charly Musonda. Celtic was viewed as an easy loan for the winger. There, he was supposed to dominate the Scottish league before returning to Stamford Bridge as a major squad player. Instead, he appears to have struggled after a brief initial burst.

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The loan system is necessary to Chelsea. But they do not always understand it. Something that works for one player can be a disaster for another. This dual nature of the system is a good reason why Chelsea should cut back the loan army and make it more personal. Chelsea need to figure out how to make loans work for every player they send out, not just the Christensen’s and Courtois’s of the army.