Half Season Loan Report

As the year comes to a close today it will be the start of more activity on the Chelsea loan front with some players finishing loan deals and moving on to bigger and better clubs, some players looking to get a club where they can get more game time and possibly some players who have yet to go out on loan get their moves this season.

Before any of that happens though lets take a look at all the Chelsea players currently out on loan and sum up how things have been going for them and take a guess at what we can expect for the rest of the season. I will continue to do weekly loan reports now and I am doing my best to keep up the stats for the players now and going forward.

Thibaut Courtois Is now in his third loan spell with Atletico Madrid and it most likely will be his last with either Chelsea looking to bring him back to challenge at Chelsea or to cash in and sell him for a big profit. As you would expect it has been another profitable loan move as he has so far made 25 appearances for the club who are genuine title contenders so far this year in Spain. Courtois has so far managed to keep and impressive 12 clean sheets in those 25 games and has only conceded 15 goals in total. It is again impressive stats that he will look to continue for the rest of the season.

Another goalkeeper who may well have a decision made on him in the summer is Sam Walker who is midway through his second loan spell with League 1 side Colchester United. Like Courtois Walker has been an ever present for Colchester this season making 26 appearances, his clean sheet record is somewhat less impressive as he has kept 5 clean sheets and has conceded 44 goals so far. He is only contracted on loan until the 19th January so we will see what happens with him shortly the hope would be for a Championship loan but i do not think that likely at this stage.

Staying in League 1 and George Saville needed a loan move this season that would give him game time to establish himself in league football and thankfully that is what he has had at Brentford. Having started the majority of the games for Brentford making 21 starts and 3 substitute appearances it seems that George has made an impression at Brentford with them showing a desire to keep him beyond the 5th January expiry. In his time so far he has managed to score 3 goals and pick up 5 yellow cards which is typical for the player.

For Todd Kane it has been up until recently a very good loan spell at Blackburn having impressed there in the second half of last season. Up until the start of December Todd has started and completed every single game that Blackburn Rovers has played scoring only a solitary goal in the process. However since the begining of December Todd has found himself unable to get himself back in the side and he is going to have to work hard and impress to ensure that he does not spend the rest of the season on the sidelines as he has for the last 5 games.

Unsuprisingly it has been an injury hit season for Marko Marin, having moved to Seville for the season to get game time and build up some form we have only seen him feature sporadically with 7 starts and 4 substitute appearances to his name so far and we have not seen him feature at all since the end of October. Marin has managed to pick up 2 goals in those appearances but both were in the same game in the Europa League. Hopefully he will be able to come back and get the games in the second part of the season.

For Patrick Bamford the aim was to return to MK Dons and impress for the first half of the season and earn himself a loan at a bigger club higher up in the Footballing pyramid and that seems to be exactly what he has done after MK Dons have confirmed today that he will not be staying at the club beyond this weekend. Patrick has started 27 games for the Dons and has scored an impressive 16 goals which is a good return for the young man. The stories at the moment are that Derby are interested and if he can go there for the rest of the season and score goals then he is well on track with his progress, however he needs to get the games so hopefully the right club will be picked for him.

Over at Vitesse there is an army of young Chelsea players at the moment and one of those is Gael Kakuta, having had a good season there last term it was hoped that he would carry that on for this season but with the arrival of Piazon and Atsu things have not gone well for him and he has only made 2 starts this season with 12 substitute appearances, he has managed to score 3 goals in those appearances but i think this season will be the last where we see Kakuta as being owned by Chelsea.

At 23 years old and plenty of loans clubs to his name now Patrick Van Aanholt is a very experienced young man even making his full Dutch International debut. He is continuing his good form making 20 starts for Vitesse so far this season scoring 3 goals in the process. It will be interesting to see what happens with Van Aanholt next season but for this he will continue to impress at Vitesse.

For Christian Cuevas it has been something of disappointing loan move so far having not made a single appearance for Vitesse so far and only featuring for their reserve side. That may change in the second half of the season but with Vitesse flying high in the league it would be unlikely that regular games will come his way this season.

The big success story in the Chelsea loan ranks has been Lucas Piazon. His time at Malaga last season was mixed and it was felt that Vitesse may be a step not high enough for him but he has started 17 games now for Vitesse and is the most talked about player in the Dutch League at the moment. He has scored a very impressive 11 goals from those 17 starts and is making a name for himself and impressing everyone who watches him play this season. His loan lasts the season and if he can keep this form up then the summer will be very interesting for him.

A new name in the Chelsea ranks is Christian Atsu who moved to Chelsea in the summer and then immediately out to Vitesse on loan having joined late and taking time to acclimatize he is now an ever present for Vitesse having started 10 games all them back to back, he only has one goal to his name so far but he is improving with every game and hopefully the second half of the season will be a good one for him.

A loan move that was surprising at the time and has proved to continue to be surprising is Sam Hutchinson's move to Vitesse. He has only made one start and come on as a substitute only once so i can only assume that he has either struggled with his fitness once again, the move was miscalculated and he is unable to work his way into the team or the move was to do with coaching more than playing. Hopefully there will be more games for him to come.

Another player on loan in Spain that has struggled for fitness is Oriol Romeu at Valencia. After struggling with fitness at the start and only playing sporadically Romeu has since found some form starting 5 of Valencia's last 7 games and making 8 starts in total. With Romeu's position being one at Chelsea that we are struggling with if he can make an impact for the rest of the season then there is hope of a recall at the end of the season for Romeu.

For Milan Lalkovic it has been a loan move where he has had to work hard having had a period where he was out of favor and not starting games he has got stuck in and worked his way back into the starting 11 on a regular basis for Walsall. He has now made 17 starts and 6 substitute appearances and scoring 4 goals in the process. Milan is another player who a descision will have to be made on soon as this current move expires on the 15th January.

Younger brother of Eden, Thorgan Hazard is another who is making a name for himself, he is regarded as currently the best player is the Belgium league. Thorgan has started every one of the 30 games that Zulte have played this season and has scored 11 goals so far. There is keen interest in the player and PSV have confirmed that they have had an approach rejected for Hazard junior.

A loan that has not quite worked out yet is Wallace who is currently at Inter Milan for the season. Disappointingly for a player who has showed a lot of promise he has only started the one game for Inter so far and come on a sub on 3 occasions. We will have to wait and see how the rest of the season goes but it could be a season wasted for the young Brazilian right back.

Another new arrival who went straight out on loan is 18 year old striker Stipe Perica who moved to Dutch side NAC Breda. So far he has only made 2 starts but is earning a reputation as a super sub making 11 substitute appearances and scoring 4 goals. I would expect for Perica to continue to improve and earn more starts and score more goals as the season goes on.

For Victor Moses it seemed like a good start making starts in the first 6 games he was there. However since then he has struggled to get the starts and has only 1 of the last 11 games for Liverpool. So far his record is 7 starts and 6 substitute appearances scoring 1 goal. It does not look like he making his way back into Rodgers 11 any time soon so Moses could be a frustrated figure this season.

Ulises Davilla  who is spending this season at Spanish second division club Cordoba. Again it has taking him time to settle in but he is now getting the regular games and seems to be performing well. He has now made 9 starts and 5 sub appearances and scored 4 goals.

Probably the most talked about of loan players is Romelu Lukaku. Having made the controversial decision to go on loan this season it was Everton where he would finally end up and he is having a season that has many saying that Chelsea are very much missing him. With 15 starts and 9 goals to his name it is easy to see how that is the case and now he has to show that he can do it for a full season as a top level.

Two players who will very much looking to find new loan clubs in January are Nathaniel Chalobah and Josh McEachran. Chalobah  is currently at Nottingham Forest and has only made 6 starts since his move there and has scored 2 goals. McEachran has a similar record with only 6 starts to his name and without a goal, Josh has not appeared in Watford's last 7 games and is definitely in need of a new club.

So there we have a brief summary of the loan players at Chelsea and there will be plenty more to discuss in the coming months and the season continues to it's close.

Go to DirecTV and get the FOX Soccer Plus package to make sure you don't miss a moment on the pitch.