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#3: The loan system can be risky
Last season, Loftus-Cheek was a clear success story of the loan system – he spent all of 2017/18 at Crystal Palace, and became a key player for the Eagles as they recovered from a poor start to climb up the table under the leadership of Roy Hodgson, eventually finishing in a respectable 11th position. On the face of it then, if he can’t get first team football at Chelsea, then another loan spell – at Palace or elsewhere – sounds like a good idea.
But the loan system doesn’t always act as flawlessly as it did for Loftus-Cheek last season. As a matter of fact, two of his Chelsea teammates ended up suffering during loan spells largely through no fault of their own.
Tammy Abraham was loaned to Swansea City for the season and despite struggling for service, he started the season well, scored 4 goals early on and found himself in the England squad by November. But when boss Paul Clement was fired and replaced by Carlos Carvalhal, Abraham’s playing time was suddenly cut down, as the Portuguese boss preferred the Ayew brothers as his forward partnership.
Abraham started just a handful of Swansea’s later games and his World Cup hopes went up in smoke.
Then spare a thought for Lewis Baker, a player who came up through Chelsea’s system alongside Loftus-Cheek and was said to be equally as talented. After a tremendous 2015/16 season with Vitesse Arnhem, Baker moved to Middlesbrough for a season – only to be frozen out at the Championship club when Tony Pulis took over and simply didn’t like his style. In the end, he started just 6 games and is now looking to rebuild his career at Leeds in 2018/19.
The loan system can be brilliant if the move works out, but even for a player of RLC’s calibre there’s no guarantee that it will – especially with the Premier League being volatile when it comes to management changes. And a club is much less likely to give chances to a loan player than they would be for a player whose contract they actually own.
