Enzo Maresca latest signing just created major problem for these 12 Chelsea players
Caleb Wiley from Atlanta United has joined Chelsea for a reported £8.5 million.
Although the 19-year-old left defender is an excellent prospect, it appears that he will be moved on loan to our affiliate club RC Strasbourg for the season because Marc Cucurella and Ben Chilwell are already in the first team.
Caleb, who has already made a lot of senior appearances for his age, should benefit from this move, but he still needs more playing time at the highest level in Europe. Hopefully, he plays 20 or 30 games this season and immediately becomes a member of the Alsatians first team.
However, sending him there will have repercussions for the team as a whole, and the log jam of players in their teens and early 20s is only growing.
A potential loan crisis on the cards
Under FIFA rules, Chelsea have 6 international loan slots available to them for this season. Wiley will use up one, and indications are that Andrey Santos will also head to Strasbourg, using another.
That leaves four slots for foreign loans, and a hell of a lot of players who might want to use them.
Bashir Humphreys, Alfie Gilchrist, Gabriel Slonina, Alex Matos, Cesare Casadei, Lesley Ugochukwu, Angelo Gabriel, Leo Castledine, Harvey Vale, Deivid Washington, David Datro Fofana and Mason Burstow, by Tom Coley’s reckoning, are all players without a first team role who might want to be loaned abroad.
And that’s assuming Kepa Arrizabalaga and Romelu Lukaku are sold this summer – certainly the club’s intention, but something they’ve failed to achieve for years. It also assumes Marc Guiu, Renato Veiga and Omari Kellyman are all staying with the first team.
Of course domestic loans are still allowed – but even then it’s a bottleneck which really reduces our options in terms of trying to find the best possible temporary home to develop all these players.