Re: The Official Loan Update Thread

by Kick Mon Dec 19, 2011 5:15 pm

Agreed, stickey!

by El Chelsea Fuerte Fri Dec 23, 2011 7:03 pm

Sam Walker was recalled on 12/23/11. His contract expires this summer so we might sell him this January or we could keep him as third choice GK as Hilario's contract expires this summer. Hilario also takes up a non-home grown spot, while Walker doesn't.

by RealGunner Fri Dec 23, 2011 8:08 pm

Heard Swansea and Aston Villa are after Josh for a loan deal

by El Chelsea Fuerte Fri Dec 23, 2011 11:05 pm

Chelsea FC loan roundup: 12/23/11

Gael Kakuta - Kakuta was not in the 18 man squad as Bolton picked up a much needed two points against Blackburn, and with the news that he's off to France soon I'd be surprised if we saw him in Bolton again. There's always that chance he sees a little more time on the pitch as Bolton have two more fixtures before the new year, but since he's barely been used to date I find it fairly unlikely.

Patrick van Aanholt - PvA was not involved as Wigan held it's second straight opponent. I think at this point it's a foregone conclusion that he'll be recalled after the holiday.

Ulises Davila - Davila was again inactive as Vitesse had a mid-week cup tie. Hopefully we'll see more of him in the second half, but I really doubt that he's moved from Vitesse as he lacks the work permit to play in England.

Tomas Kalas - Unlike Davila, Kalas was a key player in Vitesse's 2-1 cup victory midweek. He played a typically solid match as the club advanced to the quarterfinal in the end of January. Vitesse will now start their winter break, so it will be a month before we have anything new on Kalas.

Jeffrey Bruma - Bruma was also involved in a cup tie, as HSV were eliminated by Stuttgart by a scoreline of 2-1. Bruma was again fairly solid overall and his passing was a real asset to the club. The loss ended HSV's unbeaten run at 11, although that 11 game streak in the Bundesliga will still be active. Like Kalas, it will be about a month before we hear more from Bruma.

Thibaut Courtois - Atletico had a midweek Spanish cup loss, but Courtois was not involved in this one. I hope he enjoyed the early start to his winter break, he'll be back in action in two weeks.

Thanks for the sticky RG! Smile

by iNFINITY9910 Sat Dec 24, 2011 2:41 am

RealGunner wrote:Heard Swansea and Aston Villa are after Josh for a loan deal

Thats quite good tbh..

by RealGunner Wed Dec 28, 2011 1:30 am

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2079212/Bolton-set-sign-Josh-McEachran-loan.html?ITO=socialnet-twitter-dmailsports

by El Chelsea Fuerte Wed Dec 28, 2011 1:38 am

Why is Aston Villa's name being mentioned? I don't watch them much but with the manager they have I can only guess what type of football they play.

Bolton or Swansea will be ideal.

Him going to Bolton makes sense. We could offer him as a good gesture to Coyle since we're going to get Cahill for cheap. Also Villas-Boas and Coyle are good friends.

by fatman123 Wed Dec 28, 2011 4:20 am

heskey+josh=GOAT :bow:

by El Chelsea Fuerte Fri Dec 30, 2011 7:09 pm

Confirmed: McEachran not going to Bolton

by fatman123 Fri Dec 30, 2011 11:24 pm

english_jewel wrote:Confirmed: McEachran not going to Bolton

how and by who was it confirmed?

by Blue Sat Dec 31, 2011 1:27 am

fatman123 wrote:
english_jewel wrote:Confirmed: McEachran not going to Bolton
how and by who was it confirmed?

AVB

by Kick Sat Dec 31, 2011 4:03 am

I still want him at sawnsea.

by lszanto Sat Dec 31, 2011 4:10 am

How good is Sinclair? Like Kalou/Malouda level?

by El Chelsea Fuerte Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:07 am

Mid-season review: Thibaut Courtois

When AVB made his first summer signing in the form of a hulking 19 year old goalkeeper it took quite a few people by surprise. With Petr Cech still yet to reach 30 it seemed that this was pretty far down the list of priorities we should be addressing. All the same, Courtois was one of the best young goalkeeping prospects in Europe and was an absolute steal at about 1/3 the price of United's David De Gea. Almost as soon as the purchase was announced Chelsea confirmed that Courtois would be heading to Spain for the season to replace the departed De Gea. La Liga is now on it's winter break, so it seems as good a time as any to take a little deeper look at how Courtois has performed on the whole.

Evaluating a goalkeeper is a difficult thing to do. As the last line of defense they are often made the scapegoat for errors that are not of their making, but conversely they often receive too much praise for the fantastic work of the defenses in front of them. In the case of Atletico Madrid we probably deal with much more of the first issue than the second. Atletico have been an abysmal defensive unit for the majority of the season. While they have limited the shots on goal to a respectable 12 per game due to excellent amounts of possession, they've been allowing those 12 shots per game to be from very close range for the most part. The back four are near the top of La Liga in fouls committed which leads to an enormous amount of opportunities from set pieces. Combined with the fact that they are generally a very poor team in the air that tendency has led to an absurdly high number of point blank headers and volleys.

Atletico have also played quite a bit with an offside trap, which when working can neutralize a potent attacker. Unfortunately the back four hasn't been particularly effective with this tactic and has allowed an unusually high amount of free runs on goal. This has led to even more point blank shots at the keeper and probably was a large part of his red card winning tackle against Real Madrid.

Atletico's tendencies to allow free runs on goal and give away set pieces in dangerous positions does not play well to the strengths of Courtois. In typical young goal keeper fashion, Courtois tends to struggle occasionally making decisions on crosses. This has led to several easy goals for the opposition, but Courtois has been making notable improvement in this department as the season progressed. While he still makes questionable or slow decisions from time to time, the frequency of these miscues has been greatly reduced from the early going this season. At the current time he probably tries to punch too many of these crosses away and doesn't have enough faith in himself to catch them, but that is something that should come with experience in the future.

Big goalkeepers often struggle to deal with low close range shots, and Courtois has been no exception to this pattern so far. Unfortunately the offside trap that Atletico has struggled with has led to quite a few more of these chances than a keeper would normally be expected to face, but on the positive side Thibaut is being regularly exposed to a potential trouble while developing elsewhere. Where Courtois is looking notably better recently on crosses, he hasn't shown nearly the same type of development in defending the low and close shot. Hopefully this comes with more exposure in the second half, it will bear watching regardless.

At this point those appear to be the only two weaknesses that are regularly notable with Courtois in net. His positioning in general has been far better than I'd have expected, and his reflexes have been second to none (especially when considering his massive size). He deals exceptionally well with high shots and does a nice job of coming off his line and making himself "big". He doesn't struggle with controlling the ball on longer shots very often, and when he can't catch them he generally clears them out of harms way convincingly. He's been getting rave reviews throughout La Liga already, but placed in front of a defense that didn't regularly expose his weaknesses I could see him being considered among the best keepers in the league. That said, I'm glad he's currently sitting in front of a back line that will challenge him to this degree.

When playing the ball out of the back Courtois generally shows a fair amount of poise. His throws are usually accurate and well placed and he's often fairly quick to distribute. Kicking the long ball doesn't appear to be a particular strength at this point in time. I wouldn't say he's poor at it exactly, but he's not all that accurate either. At the current time Courtois is much more suited to building up out of the back rather than playing the long ball to a Drogba like one-man front line. Hopefully this is something that will come in time as this is yet another trait that doesn't tend to be prevalent in younger keepers.

As far as this loan goes, Courtois has been an overwhelming success. He almost immediately established himself as a first choice keeper and hasn't had anything resembling a rough patch which would dislodge him from that perch. He's also been given his first start as the Belgian national side's keeper, making him the youngest player to ever start in net for the tiny country. Having seen the vast majority of his games this season I can honestly say I wouldn't have much of a concern if he was asked to replace Petr Cech in the very near future, and that's something I couldn't have said 6 months ago. Despite his recent struggles there is little reason to believe that Cech is in any danger of losing his job, but it's nice to know that should something Stephen Hunt-like happen again we have as good a plan B as any team in the world playing regularly in Spain. Regardless of whether or not he ever dislodges Cech this appears to have been a brilliant piece of business as he's likely come close to doubling his value with his performance thus far this season.

At the mid point of this season, Atletico sit 10th in the table on 19 points. They currently sit 5 points out of the European places with a very similar goal differential to their competition (there are only 5 teams in Spain with positive GD...competitive). They are still alive in Europa and will be facing Lazio in the first home/away knockout round in the middle of February. They will resume domestic play January 7th against Malaga with Courtois likely still in net. Here's hoping the second half of the season sees Atletico climb back into the European places as Courtois is likely to remain there next season as well. So far so good on Thibaut Courtois...

by Abramovich Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:20 pm

lszanto wrote:How good is Sinclair? Like Kalou/Malouda level?

Not quite, he's young though still so much time to improve :bball:

by El Chelsea Fuerte Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:06 pm

Rhys Taylor (GK) heading to Rotherham for a month

by El Chelsea Fuerte Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:42 pm

Van Aanholt recalled!! banana

McEachran yesterday tweeted that he didn't know where he was going to go on loan but will inform everyone when the decision has been made

by El Chelsea Fuerte Sat Jan 07, 2012 6:56 pm

Swansea want McEachran on loan

by Kick Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:00 pm

Good, Josh should go there!

by iNFINITY9910 Sun Jan 08, 2012 10:39 am

Ryan Bertrand to go out on loan???

by El Chelsea Fuerte Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:02 am

"The only one we have outlined to loan is Josh McEachran and a deal is almost done for him."

by Blue Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:15 pm

I am looking forward to Swansea games now:P.

by El Chelsea Fuerte Tue Jan 10, 2012 11:14 pm

Chelsea FC Loan Roundup: 1/10/12

*Rhys Taylor - Taylor was just recently sent to Rotherham United, but he looked awfully comfortable in his debut there. Taylor got the start and kept a relatively uneventful clean sheet in the 3-0 victory. He looked solid on set pieces and dealing with crosses, something that we've come to expect with Taylor. At this point it appears Taylor will be starting regularly for United which is always nice to see with keeper loans. Well done Mr. Taylor

*Thibaut Courtois - While Taylor's clean sheet was relatively uneventful, Courtois' was quite the opposite. The young Belgian was absolutely sensational in the 0-0 draw with Malaga making numerous highlight reel quality saves. He also did a fairly good job in dealing with several crosses later in the game which is something he's had some struggles with thus far. He's been having a fine season to date, but I'd be hard pressed to pick a match where he's ever been better than he was on Saturday. All in all, it was a very good week for the young stopper as Atletico broke in their new manager.

by iNFINITY9910 Wed Jan 11, 2012 7:50 am

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xniray_malaga-0-atletico-madrid-0_sport#from=embed

by El Chelsea Fuerte Wed Jan 11, 2012 11:44 pm

Gael Kakuta joins struggling Ligue 1 side Dijon and Ben Gordon (LB) joins SPL side Kilmarnock, both for the remainder of the season.

by El Chelsea Fuerte Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:23 am

List updated, sorry for the delays.

Meanwhile:

Chelsea FC loanee mid-season review: Jeffrey Bruma

This is the last one of these that I'll be doing for now, as Kalas, Courtois, and Bruma are the only three full season loanees who have played enough to really warrant this sort of review on. At the end of the season I'll have wraps on some of the players who've played a little less, hopefully their new homes will provide us with a large enough sample to get a better feel for where they are at. For today, though, we'll just focus on 20 year old Jeffrey Bruma.

Bruma was part of the massive Chelsea contingent to make it's way from Cobham to Hamburg this summer, but he's the only player of the lot still on the Chelsea books. With Slobodan Rajkovic and Michael Mancienne also making their way to the Bundesliga outfit it was a bit unclear how Bruma would fit into the clubs rotation in the center of the defense. At first it seemed this concern would be an issue as the preferred CB pairing of the club seemed to be Mancienne and Rajkovic. An injury to Mancienne opened the door for Bruma though, and since then he's been a fixture in the much improved Hamburg defense.

Unlike the previous two reviews I've done, Bruma has had some first team experience here at Chelsea. We've had several opportunities to look at the youngster and see him against Premier League competition so we have some idea what he needed to work on already. We knew Bruma was strong in possession of the ball and relatively solid when recovering, but he was a bit weak in the air and his tackling needed some work.

We can see real progress in several areas since Bruma has become a regular at HSV. Where Bruma typically played a short ball out of the back very well and didn't play very many long balls here, HSV's system has forced him to put a fair amount of work into that particular department. His long balls have improved greatly from what I've seen, so his passing now has a very well rounded feel to it. Bruma in general is very good at maintaining possession when he's got the ball at his feet and now features a pretty wide range of quality passing options.

Bruma has also made some real progress with his positioning and anticipation. Where Bruma was often caught off guard by runs in the past he now seems to anticipate them more frequently. He's got good speed to make up for his mistakes in judgement, but when he doesn't make those mistakes he's clearly far more effective. He's also been very effective at blocking shots and seems to have a knack for deciding when to simply clear the ball to safety. Like his long passing, Bruma has shown real development in this department.

When Bruma made appearances for Chelsea he was often beaten in the air due to poor anticipation and a general lack of quality when making aerial challenges. To this point Bruma doesn't look nearly as shaky in this department. I think this is largely due to much better anticipation of crosses and far better positioning. Bruma still is very susceptible to getting beaten by an excellent cross and a strong aerial finisher, and at this point I fear he may never be more than average in defending in the air based on his raw ability alone. Hopefully a little added strength and even more experience will help improve him in this department, but I imagine we'll always be well served by partnering him with a center back who is known for being strong in this department.

One other area I'd like to see some improvement from in Jeffrey's game is his all around aggressiveness. To date Bruma has only picked up a single yellow card. That in itself is not a bad thing, but Bruma also seems to be a bit hesitant to dive in on a tackle for fear of the card. While his tackling in general seems greatly improved from his Chelsea appearances, I really feel a bit more aggressiveness out of Bruma will help him in the long run. When he has decided to dive in on players he's shown a knack for timing it very well. I really think a little more confidence in his decision making may be all that is really lacking there.

I've only got one video for you guys today, but it was a good game for Bruma. Here are all of his touches from the game against Stuttgart. This one was really the first good game that HSV had this season and has launched them on a run of pretty good form:

HSV resumes this Sunday and will be challenged as they host Borussia Dortmund. I have to assume Bruma will feature in this one and be heavily tested by the Dortmund attack. HSV has now gone 9 straight Bundesliga games since they last suffered a defeat so there is some reason for optimism from their perspective. This is the kind of contest that we wanted the youngster to be tested in when we sent him to Germany in the first place, so if you have access to a feed (it's on ESPN3 in the US) I'd recommend tuning in for this one. Then again, It's starting an hour into the mouth watering City/Spurs matchup that has major implications on Chelsea's season. Luckily for you US fans ESPN3 archives everything.

Bruma has done very little wrong since breaking into the starting lineup at HSV. At this point I'd have been ok if we had recalled him as a backup to Luiz and Terry as opposed to buying Gary Cahill. The fact that he'll continue to start at HSV will definitely benefit both him and us in the long run though, and hopefully he continues to improve on the areas of his game that are a bit lacking at the moment. All told I'd have to say Bruma's stock has climbed a good amount since he left and he'll probably get some serious first team consideration over the coming summer. It will also be interesting to see if he makes the final Dutch roster for the Euros. He's already made a few senior appearances and he's certainly improved his stock this season and may well have played himself into their short term plans. It was an excellent first half for Jeffrey and I'm very much looking forward to watching him in action again soon.

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