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Les Bleus are very active in the transfer market but choose to wait and see with some of their potential lenders
Chelsea’s aggressive recruiting drive at all levels of the club has left several of their next generations of stars pondering loan deals for next season.
Armando Broja having previously been loaned to Vitesse, Tino Anjorin, Ian Maatsen and Lewis Bate also explored the same option.
Anjorin, who is perhaps the highest-rated player in the Under-18 squad last season, is expected to stay and fight for a first-team spot despite the imminent arrival of attacking midfielder Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen for a record £ 72million (€ 80.5million / $ 95million).
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Maatsen and Bate are not ruling out loan moves and are expected to make late decisions about their future.
This next group of players had a chance under Frank Lampard last season, as a record eight academy graduate debuted in the same season for the Blues. This broke the previous record set by Ken Shellito and Danny Blanchflower, who made seven debuts in 1978-79.
Along with Anjorin, Broja and Maatsen, Mason Mount, Reece James, Billy Gilmour, Marc Guehi and Tariq Lamptey all made their first senior appearances for the club.
Bate did not make his debut but has been part of the squad of the day three times and has trained almost exclusively with the first team since the lockdown imposed by the coronavirus in the UK.
He represents one of the best stars in Cobham’s academy as Chelsea won Premier League 2 last season in the Under-23 league despite being one of the younger teams.
Alongside 17-year-old Bate, great things are expected from Henry Lawrence, Dynel Simeu and Jamie Cumming who have all become more and more involved in Lampard’s workouts.
Decision to loan multitudes under 18 comes after aggressive recruitment drive at youth level with the addition of former Barcelona defender Xavier Mbuyemba.
Then there are a host of other young people from overseas, including people like Edwin Andersson joins IFK Gothenberg, Jimi Tauriainen from Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi and Bryan Fiabema from Tromso.
This recruitment drive has been reflected in many of the UK’s top academies, with clubs covering their bets with the uncertainty surrounding recruiting young people due to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU). It is not yet known whether this will have an impact on the ability of clubs to sign under-18 players from abroad.
Elsewhere, Conor Gallagher is set to join Crystal Palace on a season-long loan.
Jake Clarke-Salter carefully chooses a Championship loan with Derby County, Huddersfield Town, Birmingham City and Sheffield on Wednesday after considering adding him to their defensive line. A move to West Brom could be another option.
Matt Miazga, Dujon Sterling, Nathan Baxter and Baba Rahman are also among those also in talks about their next moves, with 10 players having already accepted loans from Stamford Bridge.
Reports in France suggest new recruit Malang Sarr is in talks with Leverkusen over a loan transfer, having chosen to join the Blues initially on them and Schalke on a free transfer last week.
Ethan Ampadu is attracting a lot of interest on loans, but he’s trying to impress Lampard enough to earn a first-team spot next season.
