Jeremie Boga returns to Chelsea ready for a full Premier League campaign

Jeremie Boga started the season with Chelsea, but spent the majority of 2017/18 just above the Championship drop zone with Birmingham City. He returned to Stamford Bridge, where the development staff should be preparing him for the Premier League next season.

It’s rarely a good idea to go revisit your mid-August predictions in mid-May, at least not without a good sense of humour. These pages spent most of Chelsea’s pre-season and the first few weeks of the campaign praising Jeremie Boga’s imminent ascension to the first-team.

The winger was very impressive on the tour of Asia, Eden Hazard was recovering from a broken ankle and Pedro was not inspiring confidence at left-wing. Ask any of us who was set to be the next John Terry, and Boga would have pipped Andreas Christensen. This was especially true when the opening day XI came out. As things turned out, that day presaged the season to follow. Jeremie Boga started against Burnley, with Christensen on the bench. Eighteen minutes into the game Christensen replaced Boga after Gary Cahill’s red card. By the end of the month, Boga was on loan at Birmingham City and things worked out quite differently for Christensen.

As Boga noted in his farewell tweet, “it was a season with ups and downs.” He meant that for the club, but it applies just as much to him. Boga’s fortunes swayed with each of Birmingham’s three managers. Harry Redknapp brought Boga to the club and gave him six starts in September.

Redknapp’s assistant took over after Redknapp’s sacking, but did not share his mentor-predecessor’s high opinion on the Chelsea loanee. He thought Boga needed more physical conditioning, so Boga only played 123 minutes across October and November.

By the new year, Garry Monk was at the helm for Birmingham’s relegation scrap. He restored Boga for the early part of the year, but played him only 50 minutes in March and left him out of the squad entirely for three of the final four fixtures.

Even with the ups and downs, Boga amassed more games and far more minutes than in his previous senior-level loans at Stade Rennais and Grenada. He scored two goals and three assists for Birmingham, on par with his output on the other loans. Between the three loans, though, Boga still has fewer than 100 senior-level games. This strongly weighs against his hopes of playing for Chelsea’s first team next season.

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However, Chelsea need youth as well as depth at left winger. Even if Eden Hazard stays, the Blues do not have many options at left wing. Antonio Conte seems to prefer Pedro as a roving central midfielder more than a traditional left winger. As Pedro loses his speed with age, he will have less utility as a forward in a counter-attacking side. Callum Hudson-Odoi has been a promising and capable prospect on left wing, but Chelsea are highly unlikely to exempt him from the loan pipeline to bring him into the first team next season.

Boga is at the point where Chelsea must assign him to a Premier League team or prepare to move him out. The 2018/19 season will be his fourth at the senior level, and will see him turn 22. If he is not ready to play at Stamford Bridge by the end of next season at the latest, he is doubtful to ever play there (at least not in Blue). The only way Chelsea can know if he is ready is to watch him play in the Premier League. Crystal Palace, Huddersfield Town and Swansea City (if they stay up) have all proved useful loan destinations in the top flight.

Chelsea should go into their pre-season with the hope of naming Boga to next year’s squad. Particularly if they only qualify for the Europa League they will need players like him, and he will gain a lot of benefit from such a campaign. Only if Chelsea buy a new left winger should they consider Boga, and then his next and final loan should be within the Premier League.

Next: Olivier Giroud completes the rotation equation for Chelsea's forwards

The Blues have been slowly improving their loan management. Jeremie Boga will be another important test of the system.