CHELSEA'S LOAN POLICY - Emanalo defends it . What do YOU think of it?

Michael Emenalo has defended Chelsea's use of the loan system having sent thirty-three players out this season, double the number other Premier League sides. I am wondering your thoughts on what he has said?

As always with Chelsea and our loan policy, there is plenty of comment and opinion on the subject. Plenty agree with it for the majority of our youngsters but others would rather see the youngsters on the edge of the first team being given a go.

Then there are those players in our first team squad who have to settle for life just as part of the squad or life on the bench and a loan move is the best option.

However, what about those players that plenty of us feel should be given a go and to not just warm the bench week in, week out like Victor Moses who has shown he has the quality to play in the Premier League?

When asked of the loan system, Michael Emenalo said:

"The loan programme is one that I can predict confidently that others will follow suit and start doing the same.

There is a gap in the players who have come through and been developed by the academy up to the age of 18 and 19 who now needs to step up into the first team.

But we are not talking about any first-team, this is Chelsea Football Club first-team - which means you are going to have to win games to win titles.

You are going to play in games that mean something. There is no room for errors. This is a huge demand for young players.

You cannot expect 18 and 19-year-olds to come in and be ready.

We need to find another way to keep their development going and without the benefit of a Chelsea B team in any of the other leagues, without the benefit of being able to house them here and play competitive games which the Under-21 league doesn't really offer.

We need to find an alternative and we feel that alternative is to get them out and play somewhere.

This came because of the level and quality of the training they are receiving in our academy, because people started coming to us and asking us for our players.

We thought why not? This makes more sense.

Now you can look around and you can see where those 30 players are going. We have young 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds going to important leagues in the world to play first-team football. I think it is a very good thing for the club.

We rarely have 19-year-olds in our academy now unless they are waiting to go out on loan.

We have had conversations with the English FA and we know that they are very happy for us to have some of these young players go abroad and get some of these experiences that which they are not available in Championship or Premier League teams.

The loan system is a huge, huge help to the idea of developing players now.

"We don't just send them away to try and make money, we send them away so they can develop and become better players and hopefully come back and play for our first-team.

If you look around the world of football, especially Europe and you look at all the other big clubs you will be hard pressed to find 18 year olds playing at the clubs that are at our level on a regular basis in those big games.

I guarantee you that is difficult to find. We have done some work, investigations and research and we know these players don't start showing their true championship stripes, so to speak, until the age of 22, 23, 24 and that's what you are seeing with some of the players like (ex academy players) Jack Cork and Ryan Bertrand (now at Swansea and Southampton).

It wasn't so much a mystery that suddenly at the age of 23 or 24 we can see their qualities coming through.

We have a difficult job, but one we happily accept because we are a big club, of trying to balance the idea of being a successful club.

By that we mean winning trophies and qualifying easily for the Champions League which is now considered to be a trophy.

To balance that out we have to make sure we have the right players at the right time.

We have some players who we know their development is not quite finished like Victor who we feel we want to keep with our squad but also understand that maybe he needs to play football to get to the level we think he can get to because he is very talented.

And there are others who come in and the timing is not right for them. For example Cuadrado who came in after we have a very difficult game at Spurs and we had to change our strategy for the rest of the season which didn't suit the reason we had originally gone into get
him.

We felt that it was better for him to go and rediscover his confidence. And he didn't go to just any team, he went to Juventus.

Victor has gone to West Ham. These players go to top clubs and when they get there they prove that we don't recruit bad players, just like Salah did last season.”

I tend to agree with everything he is saying about the clubs policy. The younger players need exposure to competitive football in order to make the step up to the first team. They need to get used to the demands of first team football and the club needs to see how they cope.

Patrick Bamford is the perfect example here. In just over a couple of seasons he has proven himself in League One and the Championship. He now has his chance in the Premier League and with Glen Murray leaving Palace, it looks like he will get the chance he needs and Chelsea need to see how he settles into the League.

As for the first team squad players that need football it's always one for debate because some of them deserve a chance and some have had their chance and literally done nothing.

What's your opinion on all this and what Emenalo has said here? Do you agree with their policy or would you change it?

Post your opinions as I would love to hear plenty of thoughts on this!