Chelsea: Blues lose Jamal Blackman to injury as Izzy Brown debuts for Whites

Chelsea’s loan army is having a difficult first half of 2018/19, with underperformances, threats of recalls and injuries stealing the attention from places like Derby County and Torino. Jamal Blackman’s loan at Leeds United ended in just about the worst way possible.

Chelsea’s loan army had 42 minutes to celebrate a player’s long-awaited return from injury before calamity struck another player on loan at the same club. The Blues somehow persuaded Leeds United to take Isaiah Brown on loan from the beginning of the season, even though he would not be available for regular first-team action until almost the new year. His last action was with Brighton & Hove Albion on January 8, when he tore his ACL in the 6′ of an FA Cup tie.

Brown played the first half with Leeds United’s U23’s on Friday. Fellow Chelsea loanee Jamal Blackman started in goal. In the 87′, a collision broke Blackman’s tibia and he will now miss at least the remainder of the season.

Blackman has only made two appearances for Leeds United this season. Both were in the Carabao Cup. Leeds lost the second game on August 28, and Blackman has not played since. He was likely playing for the U23’s because of growing concerns over Leeds’ starting goalkeeper, Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who allowed four goals to West Bromwich Albion last weekend. The U23 game was probably a chance for him to build match sharpness in case Marcelo Bielsa thinks it is time to switch goalkeepers.

Blackman is the second player Chelsea have lost this year to an injury while playing at a youth level. Ethan Ampadu’s debut season was cut short by an ankle injury he picked up in a UEFA Youth League game in March. The insult of the injury grew when youth advocate Antonio Conte was replaced by youth refusenik Maurizio Sarri. Ampadu has yet to play in 2018/19.

Ampadu was at least a youth player when he was injured in the UEFA Youth League. Jamal Blackman is 25 years old. The question of why he was playing with the U23’s is tangled with the question of why he has only two cup appearances this season.

It’s bad enough for a young player or an outfield player to spend his loan on the bench. But for a goalkeeper in his mid-20’s to go out on loan and deputize a 22-year old, well, only Chelsea’s loan management would assent to that.

Blackman has nearly 100 first team appearances in the Championship and League One. A game – any game – is always the best way to restore match sharpness.

But a U23 game should not have been necessary and proved itself to be an unnecessary risk. Don’t get me wrong, a broken tibia is as freak as freak injuries go. But this is another example of the downstream consequences of Chelsea’s loan mismanagement. “Playing a U23 game on loan in the Championship” should never be the answer to “How did your player hurt himself?”

The decision to loan Blackman was questionable from the off. He was very much in demand after his prior loan stints, but the Blues did not think he was worth keeping around. Blackman could have been in Chelsea’s rotation, with Willy Caballero as the experienced back-up as necessary and Blackman as the lower-competition fill-in. This is the long-term approach to goalkeeper management. And Blackman, like Rob Green, would have counted towards the homegrown player quota. Leeds were at least a promising destination until they went fully towards Peacock-Farrell as their starter.

There’s all sorts of symmetry and irony with Jamal Blackman going into a long-term injury cycle not just on the day but in the same game that Isaiah Brown makes his return. Chelsea’s loan army is having plenty of ups and down this season, but rarely so close together.

As my predecessor often said: Win some, lose some. A few draws.