Chelsea: Loan to Wolves can purge Swansea from Tammy Abraham’s record

FIFA may have the final say on whether Tammy Abraham can cut short his loan at Aston Villa to take an offer from Wolves. If the move goes through Abraham will have a rare opportunity to purge his year at Swansea City from Chelsea’s memory.

Aston Villa’s FA Cup tie on Saturday could have been the Tammy Abraham derby. Abraham is Aston Villa’s leading scorer by nearly a three-fold margin (16 goals to Jonathan Kodjia’s six), and his team were looking to him to lead the line against his loan club from last season, Swansea City. Instead, Villa got a glimpse at what could be their very near-term, Abraham-less future. Villa coach Dean Smith said Abraham’s “head had been turned” by offers from Wolves for a second-half loan, and so Abraham was not in the FA Cup squad. Villa lost 3-0.

Because Abraham played for Chelsea’s U23’s and with the first team in the Community Shield before joining Villa, he is ineligible to play for Wolves. FIFA rules limit players to two clubs per season. Wolves and Abraham would need a waiver from FIFA for the loan switch to occur.

Abraham’s form and stats sheet at Aston Villa is very similar to what he did in 2016/17 at Bristol City. While most clubs would recognize his season at Swansea City as the outlier, particularly when accounting for Swansea’s overall offensive deprivation last season, Chelsea are not most clubs. Abraham is at risk of Chelsea lumping him in with other chronic loanees like Tomas Kalas as great in the Championship, but not ready for the Premier League. As Kalas can attest, that is how one stays mired in the second tier for years on end.

Wolves offer the perfect opportunity for Abraham to expunge last season from his record. Unlike Swansea, Wolves are an offence-oriented team that provides quality service to their strikers. Wolves would give Abraham the tactical and technical platform to show that his goal-scoring prowess is not limited to the Championship.

After 21 games, Wolves already have nearly as many goals and key passes as Swansea City did in all of last season. Wolves’ leading scorer has one fewer goal now than Swansea’s leading scorer did at the end of last season.

In recent games Nuno Espirito Santo has experimented with a two-striker formation. If he stays with the 3-5-2, Abraham would play alongside Raul Jimenez. This alone would be a great opportunity for Abraham, let alone if he can overshadow Jimenez enough to remain as the lone striker when Santo goes with a 3-4-3.

The only risk involved in the move is Wolves’ willingness to spend and habit of turning loans into purchases. Many of their loan deals – including Jimenez’s – have an option to buy. Chelsea should not allow Wolves to insert any clause that could trigger a sale for Abraham, given the state of the strikers at Stamford Bridge. However, in terms of Abraham’s future, if Wolves can offer him a regular spot in the starting XI with a club that has all the makings of a top-six challenger within the next three years, he will justifiably have his head turned from whatever stasis Chelsea are probably planning for him.

Chelsea have recalled several loanees in the early days of the transfer windows, mostly under less than propitious circumstances. This would be a case of early termination for good cause, even if it will all but condemn Aston Villa to another season in the Championship. Villa are currently in 10th place with the second-most goals scored. Without Abraham, they will struggle to remain midtable.

But what is bad for John Terry now will be better for him in a few years when he returns home to take the reins at Chelsea FC. He can reunite with Abraham at Stamford Bridge, where Abraham will be leading the front line after proving that he is as potent in the Premier League as he was in the Championship, his season at Swansea City lost as a footnote to history.

Wishful thinking? A bit. But if Tammy Abraham can show that his experience last season was due more to his team than himself, he will at least be in a better position to negotiate his future with Chelsea and avoid the loanee Championship trap.