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With the Academy on their winter break there is little to talk about at Academy level other than the loan report and even that is reduced due to most countries having their winter breaks also. However what this time of year does bring us is a lot of movement with regards to loans. I will get to the new movements shortly but first i will cover last weeks games played by Chelsea loan players.
Goalkeeper Sam Walker went head to head this week with another Chelsea player Patrick Bamford who was playing his last game infrom of the MK Dons home crowd. Out of the 2 players it was Sam Walker who would win the day with the game finishing 0-0 and Walker pulling off a number of very good saves to keep Colchester in the game. Walker’s loan expires soon so something will have to be decided for his future this season.
George Saville did not feature for Brentford this week, but he is another player who could be moving clubs as his loan deal expires tomorrow and even though Brentford are very keen to keep him a loan to the Championship is not out of the question and there are stories of Wigan being interested in him.
Todd Kane meanwhile is finding life very tough now at Blackburn having not featured now for the last 6 games so there is an outside chance that Todd could be recalled from that loan if Blackburn feel that Todd has no way back into the team as things stand.
Over at Walsall Milan Lalkovic started the game against Sheffield United and played for 84 minutes, he did not get a goal but he continues to play well, his loan also expires shortly but I feel with Lalkovic that he should stay where he is and get a full season under his belt and then review in the summer.
In the Premier League, Victor Moses was once again a substitute for Liverpool in their victory over Hull and came on with 14 minutes to go. Romelu Lukaku meanwhile made his 16th consecutive start for Everton in their 1-1 draw with Stoke, Lukaku played for 81 minutes before being subbed off.
Nathaniel Chalobah‘s frustrating loan move to Nottingham Forest is drawing to a close, and there is little doubt that he will shortly be elsewhere, but this week he did start for Forest in their game against Reading and played for 81 minutes, that was only his 7th start for Forest.
So that was it as far as playing action went but there have already been some moves with regards to loan players. Having recently been confirmed as officially signing for Chelsea, Bertrand Traore has immediately gone out on loan as was expected really and has gone to Vitesse where he will link up with fellow Chelsea players Piazon, Atsu, Van Aanholt and Cuevas.
Having only seen Traore so far in pre-season it will be interesting to see how he gets on in Holland but there is little doubt the boy has talent and I am sure he will be a big asset for Vitesse and create a potent force alongside Piazon and Atsu in attack.
Coming out of Vitesse however is Sam Hutchinson and Gael Kakuta. The season has not gone well for either player with Hutchinson only making one start and 1 appearance off the bench and Kakuta only starting 2 games although he did come off the bench on 12 occasions. Their futures will now have to be decided with it most likely Kakuta will leave Chelsea for good in this window. Hutchinson is less certain as it is not clear if it is his fitness that has kept him out for Vitesse or not.
One other player that has been recalled is Josh McEachran. Having done well at Middlesbrough last season it was hoped he would progress further this season at Watford under Gianfranco Zola but things have not worked out for him. Having only made 6 starts and coming off the bench twice and scoring no goals it really has not been what anyone would have wanted for him. So now there is the chance to find him a better place to develop for this season and hopefully he will get the right move.
By the time the loan report returns next week I have no doubt that there will have been plenty more moves taken place with reports of loans looming for Tomas Kalas and Kenneth Omeru as well as new loan for McEachran but we will see.
