Last week, it was announced that Chelsea defender Matt Miazga was joining Spanish side Alaves on loan for the upcoming campaign.
When Miazga left New York Red Bulls in 2016 with the dream of growing into a Premier League defender, he certainly did not expect to spend the last five seasons playing at five different clubs.
Chelsea ’s loan system has always divided the football world, they have an abundance of talent on their books but very few players ever pull on their prestigious blue home shirt in front of a packed Stamford Bridge.
The London club have a huge academy that includes homegrown talents as well as cherry-picked prospects from other clubs as well; however, when said players reach an age where they can expect to be progressing into the first team, they are sent out on loan.
In their 2-0 defeat of Arsenal last weekend, Blues boss Thomas Tuchel had three academy graduates in his starting line-up: Andreas Christensen, Reece James and Mason Mount.
Romelu Lukaku, who spent time in the Chelsea academy, also started, but the Blues had to pay Inter Milan £97.5m for him a few weeks ago as they sold him after successful loan spells at West Brom and Everton.
Currently, the Blues have 15 players out of loan, a steep decline from their 37 players out on loan in the 2020/21 campaign. But, will we ever see any of those current loanees making their mark in the Premier League?
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The system itself, loaning young players out to clubs in Europe to develop and progress, works for a club that aren’t short of funds like Chelsea. They can afford to keep as many players as possible and then, when they come to a decision on them, keep the players they want and sell those who they don't think are good enough.
The Blues’ loan system is an embodiment of ‘if you throw enough mud at a wall, some will stick’.
Morally, the loan system is unfair on players. Most join the academy and are sold the dream of following in the footsteps of club legends like John Terry, but instead, more likely than not, they spend season after season playing for Vitesse in the Eredivisie and at Championship clubs before being sold.
Financially though, it works, they can save plenty of funds by bringing players through the academy and loan system.
Of course, there have been some monumental lapses in judgement previously where rash decisions have been made. Lukaku, Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Ake and Mohamed Salah all had good spells out on loan but were, now regrettably, sold, and Declan Rice was released at 14-years-old and is now valued by West Ham as a £100m midfielder.
Of the players they have kept, in the current market James is potentially worth around £50m and Mount somewhere around the £80m mark, so when players like them come through the ranks and break on to the scene then it shows that the enormous loan system makes sense.
But another key reason why the system works is the Blues they can recoup funds when they want to bring in already-established talent by simply selling players. Lukaku was purchased for £97.5m, but that transfer potentially cost Roman Abramovich around £15m when considering other factors.
This summer, Chelsea sold academy graduates Tammy Abraham (Roma, £35m), Fiyako Tomori (AC Milan, £25m), Marc Guehi ( Crystal Palace, £25m) and Valentino Livramento ( Southampton, £5m), that money potentially went towards the club record signing. They also have buyback clauses in the contracts of several of those players, giving them a fighting chance of bringing them back if they make a KDB-esque mistake.
Out on loan at the moment the likes of Miazga, Kenedy (Flamengo), Michy Batshauyi (Besiktas), Billy Gilmour (Norwich City) and co will be hoping they can develop enough to be included in Tuchel’s future plans rather than being sold to fund another big-money transfer.
Realistically, only one of those players will play for Chelsea in the future (Gilmour), but the rest of those players are investments waiting to be cashed in. If they need a left-back next season, for example, they can offload a few of those players and save themselves some cash, or dip into the academy and see if there is a young man ready and waiting to step up.
