Chelsea: Five times Marina Granovskaia won the summer transfer window

4. Cleaning out the loan army (somewhat)

Chelsea have about 25 players (give or take) out on loan to start the season. This is well below the levels reached in the last few seasons. At the peak of the Michael Emenalo-led loan madness there were up to 40 Blues-in-name-only (BINOs) scattered across Europe, with a few forgotten souls on loan in South America.

This summer the Blues sold eight players who had previously gone out on three or more loans.

Among these players were Tomas Kalas and Kenneth Omeruo, who were not only the longest-serving loan army veterans but were the longest-serving Chelsea FC senior players. This despite the fact that they combined for only four first-team appearances, and Kalas had all four.

Lucas Piazon is now the most tenured loan army player, and he is back on loan, this time at Rio Ave in LigaNOS. Before leaving for Portugal he signed an extension with Chelsea. Presumably the club think they will be able to receive more for him next summer with more years left on his contract than they were offered this season. Under no circumstances should anyone think the club have plans or even hopes for him at Stamford Bridge.

That seems to be the rationale for keeping some of the other loan army veterans under contract at Chelsea. Just because the Blues are changing their development and acquisition pipeline and are overhauling the loan system in the process doesn’t mean they are going to make clumsy financial decisions.

Chelsea are likely receiving more in cumulative loan fees for players like Piazon, Kenedy and Abdul Baba Rahman than they would from selling them this summer. Their time will come in a future cull, which is certain as the Blues look to restore a real sense of purpose to the loan army and reduce their need for it as a hedge against Financial Fair Play.