“Incredibly messy” – This part of Chelsea’s transfer strategy deserves criticism after latest move | OneFootball

Chelsea’s Club World Cup success has validated a lot of the team’s crazy transfer policy of the last few years, but there’s still plenty to criticise.

The decision to sign Mamadou Sarr from Strasbourg then loan him back, taking up one of our three precious loan slots with our sister club is causing some to scratch their heads today.

Chelsea’s dodgy loan policy criticised

Andrey Santos knee slides after scoring a superb goal for Strasbourg against Toulouse. (Photo by Chris PA/Getty Images)

On the London is Blue podcast they noted the entire loan setup as one that needs improvement.

“[Looking back at last year], you’ve got Andrey Santos and Djordje Petrovic [going to Strasbourg]. Obviously those are both 10/10 loans,” said presenter Nick Verlaney.

“They both have player of the season performances. The rest of it is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly messy. You send Trevoh Chalobah out on loan then you have to recall him halfway through the season to save you. You loan two players you bought in the summer because they just weren’t up to snuff or just didn’t want to play for your club anymore [Joao Felix and Renato Veiga]. This is where I think the club has to get a lot better. You have to identify target rich environments for players to grow. I think there could be one at Coventry this upcoming season that could be very interesting for the club to consider, where a former manager of this club is trying to bring them back to the top. And Strasbourg of course is proving to be a good destination as well.”

Chelsea need to nail this summer’s loans

We agree – there’s no point buying young talent if you don’t have the pathway to improve them. We hope the rest of this summer seems some intelligent moves to get as many of our talents as possible in the right place to shine in the season to come.