Chelsea: Loan army takes wrong turn with Tiemoue Bakayoko, Kurt Zouma

Chelsea are sending more experienced first team players on loan than ever before. This is unwelcome territory for the loan army.

Once Tiemoue Bakayoko poses with an AC Milan jersey and joins Kurt Zouma in the loan army, Chelsea will have two loanees with over 2,000 Premier League minutes as Blues for the first time. The only previous loanees with more first-team experience were Fernando Torres and Michael Essien. But while those loans were about gently transitioning them out of Chelsea and into their 30s, Chelsea are casting 23-year olds Zouma and Bakayoko into uncharted and worrisome territory.

The loan army has grown over the last decade, shedding its facade of being a development path and becoming every bit a Financial Fair Play compliance vehicle. Even so, Chelsea have had constraints on their use of the loan system until this season.

Most players enter Chelsea’s loan system straight from the Academy or upon transferring to the club. Chelsea rarely take players out of a regular spot in the first team to send them on loan.

Loanees in their mid-20s fall into two main categories. The largest category are those players who never had more than a preseason opportunity to wear the kit, and many who did not even have that.

The others are players Chelsea bought for no clear reason or for a manager who was sacked shortly thereafter. That is how Juan Cuadrado, Mohamed Salah and Loic Remy ended up on loan despite a few hundred (in Remy’s case, nearly 1,000) Premier League minutes for the club. However, Salah was significantly younger than these other two. He was a Chelsea loanee between ages 21 and 23, a normal range for a loanee. Cuadrado and Remy were both over 27 while on loan.

Victor Moses is the most notable exception to these norms. Moses played 1,121 minutes in the 2012/13 Premier League season, his first at Chelsea. He then started three seasons of loans to Liverpool, Stoke and West Ham before becoming an essential part of Antonio Conte’s side in 2016/17. Moses turned 23 while at Liverpool.

Ryan Bertrand is the other outlier in the last decade of the loan army. Bertrand played 1,920 minutes over four Premier League seasons, with all but 100 minutes coming in 2011/12 and 2012/13. Chelsea then loaned him to Aston Villa and Southampton for a half season each before selling him to Southampton. Bertrand was 24 when he went to Villa, but this was his re-entrance to the loan system. Bertrand completed five loans between ages 17 and 21, then had his run in the first team, and then returned to loans ahead of his exit.

Tiemoue Bakayoko and Kurt Zouma do not match up with any of their predecessors in the loan army. Their playing time is more akin to the late-career loanees, Fernando Torres and Michael Essien. But their age is closer to the much more common “permanent” loanees. And Victor Moses did not have Bakayoko’s and Zouma’s trophy-winning first-team experience before joining Chelsea.

Michy Batshuayi joins them as being qualitatively different, as well. Despite having only 588 Premier League minutes before starting his loan at Borussia Dortmund, Batshuayi was a key figure in every competition for Chelsea. He was Conte’s goal-scoring super sub, a well-defined if frustrating role, but one he regularly delivered upon. None of Chelsea’s other loanees of similar age or playing time – Salah, Cuadrado, Remy – had such a significant impact at the club, nor did they have a regular place in the squad.

Bakayoko, Zouma and Batshuayi are at the age where Chelsea loanees should be returning to the club for either their last chance at the first team or a permanent transfer where they can enter their prime years with professional stability. Instead, the Blues are sending them off into the purgatory that has interrupted so many players’ development. This is an absolute gamble, and the Blues do not have the value of precedent.

Chelsea’s dereliction in replacing Michael Emenalo is certainly a factor. A technical director would never allow the club to have three 23/24-year old players – each with at least two trophies for Chelsea, two with French silverware and one World Cup semi-finalist – who are surplus to requirements but may possibly have a future with the club. That would be technical director malpractice.

For as much as we enjoyed criticizing Michael Emenalo – and stand by much (admittedly not all) of it – he never let this happen.

A technical director is supposed to be the continuity in a club’s football operations. Chelsea need this role more than most clubs given the regular turmoil of the head coach. Without a technical director and with yet another new coach at the helm, Chelsea are shooting blindfolded at the broadside of a barn, and missing. They cannot manage who they have and they are uncertain on who to sell because they cannot see beyond tomorrow. The loan army is a cheap compromise of a decision.

Hopefully Kurt Zouma, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Michy Batshuayi will be a branch of the Victor Moses side of the loan army. Chelsea’s history and present counts against them, though. Moses also had the benefit of Antonio Conte, who revolutionized Chelsea’s tactics and Moses’ career in one move.

Perhaps if these players carry a bit of resentment with them they will be a variant on the Mohamed Salah branch. Considering how avoidable and self-inflicted this situation is, that may be the most just consequence for Chelsea.