Chelsea loan army: Keep, loan or sell? Danny Drinkwater (Part 20)

In Part 19 of this series, I broke down Ross Barkley’s career at Chelsea and discussed what his future in football looks like. For those who haven’t read the introductory piece to this series, a different player will be the subject of a new article every day. I began with goalkeepers and am currently in the process of working my way up the pitch, with each position group being sorted in order by the way in which they appear on the club’s website.

As I move on with the loan army series, I continue the deep dive into the midfield loanees with Danny Drinkwater. If you were to take a look at his CV, you’d think Drinkwater is a much better footballer than he currently is. He’s played for a handful of the country’s biggest clubs, but now he finds himself as one of the newest additions to the Blues’ loan army. It begs the question, how did we get to this point?

More from Chelsea FC Loan Watch

• Chelsea: The €30m January signing who will highly excel with Pochettino’s appointment
• Chelsea loan Army: How Ian Maatsen has got on at Burnley
• What’s next for Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher as asking price revealed?
• The next man up for Chelsea: Left back Ian Maatsen
• The next man up for Chelsea: Center forward Mason Burstow

What does Danny Drinkwater’s Chelsea career look like?

Born in Manchester, Drinkwater came up through the ranks of one of the world’s most prestigious clubs. He joined his native Manchester United at the age of nine where he spent his teenage years climbing the youth ladder. Sir Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils’ gave the local lad a call toward the end of the 2008/09 season. Man United had spent the back half of the year leading the pack and had secured the title by matchweek 38. Drinkwater received his senior call-up and made the substitutes bench during the season finale—he did not get into the match.

Drinkwater was sent out on loan at the beginning of the following campaign to League One’s Huddersfield Town. Appearing in 33 league contests, Drinkwater became a staple in the middle of the park for the Terriers. He helped Huddersfield to the League One playoffs where it was defeated by eventual promotion winners, Millwall, 2-0 on aggregate. While the Terriers may not have played well enough to earn a spot in the Championship for the next season, Drinkwater earned somewhat of a promotion.

Man United loaned him out to Cardiff City following some issues with the latter club’s trade embargo. Despite these troubles, Drinkwater was able to finally feature for the side days after his move was completed. In the end though, this is one the Red Devils would’ve done differently. They recalled the young midfielder just a few months in after he only saw action a handful of times. Three days after returning home, he was off to Watford. Funnily enough, it was much of the same for Drinkwater at Watford, he only made 12 appearances in the back half of the season.

He remained on the same level of the English ladder during his fourth and final loan when Barnsley made a move to sign the midfielder on a six-month deal (later extended to a one-year move). Drinkwater posted his best numbers since the ’09/10 season with one goal and five assists across 1,300 minutes in the Championship, which saw him recalled to Old Trafford. He would later be sold to the Championship’s Leicester City for an undisclosed fee. When Drinkwater moved permanently to the Foxes, he had no idea what the next few years had in store.

Claiming Drinkwater was an excellent piece of transfer business for Leicester City would be an understatement. He would go on to play 105 games in the Championship as a mainstay in the Foxes’ midfield. He led Leicester to the playoff in 2012/13, but it wasn’t until the following season that the Foxes found themselves promoted into the top flight. Drinkwater was named to Championship Team of the Year after scoring a career-high seven goals.

The story hardly ends there.

Despite finding themselves in the hunt for relegation—sitting bottom of the table during matchweek 32—toward the end of its inaugural Premier League season, Leicester was able to avoid the drop by six points thanks to some late season heroics. Alongside N’Golo Kante, Marc Albrighton and Riyad Mahrez though, Drinkwater would go on to make history in 2015/16. The following season saw the miracle run of the Foxes, who had 5000/1 to lift the trophy at the end of the season. Drinkwater was a pivotal part in Leicester’s impossible Premier League title victory, which earned him some looks by other English giants.

One season passed before Antonio Conte and Chelsea pulled the trigger on Drinkwater, bringing him in as a potential replacement to Nemanja Matic alongside Kante. The Englishman struggled with injuries during his first season, but still managed to make 22 appearances overall. As was the case with countless others on this list, Conte’s departure seemingly marked the end of Drinkwater’s Chelsea career. He had one outing during the following season under Maurizio Sarri, a 30-minute cameo in the Community Shield. The midfielder rotted away amongst the reserves before being dealt almost a year later.

Drinkwater joined both Burnley and Aston Villa for the 2019/20 season, but failed to make an impact at either top flight club due to injury and some personal issues. As the club began scrambling to think of ideas of what to do with him, Drinkwater remained match fit by playing in Premier League 2—most notably getting sent off for a challenge on a Spurs youngster in a PL2 match. The Blues couldn’t find any takers for the midfielder as his unpredictable behavior began to be a problem. Drinkwater joined Kasimpasa in the Turkish top flight back in January.

This begs the question: what does Chelsea do with Drinkwater this summer?

Verdict: Sell

The former Leicester City star has had a rough go of things since making a move to Stamford Bridge—partly his own fault, but not entirely. Suffice it to say, being a part of the Blues’ loan army at the age of 31 is not what he had envisioned for his career up to this point. The veteran midfielder will have one season left on his contract following this campaign. Drinkwater’s nearing the point in his career where constant loan moves are worse than retirement. In the end, Drinkwater’s sale is something that’d benefit both sides.

Remember to check back with The Pride of London each and every day as I dive into the largely uncharted world of Chelsea’s famous loan army. Part 21’s subject is midfielder Conor Gallagher.