The Premier League’s Newest Faces
By Ryan Wrenn
Loanees at Chelsea
If Chelsea had one flaw last season it was the Jose Mourinho’s failure to effectively rotate the first team. So dominant in the first half of the year, Chelsea obviously began to suffer from fatigue in January and never recovered that early season form. They went on the win the league, of course, but that had as much to do with the rest of the league’s relative incompetence than it did Chelsea’s quality in the latter half.
More importantly, that same fatigue prevented Chelsea from being able to finish out their European campaign with any kind of glory. Chelsea’s undignified exit at the hands of a 10-man Paris Saint Germain side in the knockout round showed just how detrimental Mourinho’s policy of sticking with a largely unchanged starting XI could be. Even with the man advantage, Chelsea struggled to control the game and, in the end, couldn’t stop PSG from scoring twice to level accounts and taking the tie on away goals.
Thankfully for both Mourinho and Chelsea’s Financial Fair Play account, the Blues likely already have the players they need to remedy this issue. For the past several years Chelsea have developed a sophisticated network of recruitment and loan relationships with clubs across Europe. This allows them to maintain a bloated squad while also likely making a profit on players that end up performing well on their loans.
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To date, though, not many of those loanees have been brought back to the club to feature on the first team. That’s despite the fact that several have actually excelled in their loans. Kevin de Bruyne – now at Wolfsburg – and Mohamed Salah – technically still on loan at Fiorentina – are just two examples of players that would, presumably, slide right into Mourinho’s starting XI. That neither was given much of a chance proves how regressive Mourinho’s rotation policy can be.
For Chelsea to defend their title and improve in the Champions League, Mourinho would do well to recognize the quality he has at his disposal. He’s already showed some signs that he’s willing to field some younger players. Defender Kurt Zouma got significant minutes last season, albeit mostly in a midfield role, and Ruben Loftus-Creek made his full debut after Chelsea had already claimed the title. Returning loanees like striker Patrick Bamford should be given a chance to prove himself in the Premier League, though the chances of that happening diminished as soon as Chelsea announced the loan signing of Radamel Falcao last week.
Nevertheless, there are some signs that Chelsea will improve next season, if not from external transfers then certainly from internal promotions.