Academy Catch Up: Loans, Games and Fixtures

As is usual at this stage of the season it has been an extremely busy week in the Chelsea academy. First of all following last weeks round up of players who have departed on loan we can already add a number to that list and i will focus on those players first:

Milan Lalkovic:

The 20 year old winger is hoping to finally make an impact on loan. This is his 4th loan move and so far he has not played the number of games he would have hoped. Between Doncaster, Den Haag and Guimares he made a total of 16 appearances and 2 of loans he was recalled by the club because things were not working for him. A pacey winger Lalkovic has the ability to be a major attacking threat for a side and hopefully Walsall will see him able to do that. He has already made an impression on the club and fans in pre season appearances and if he is able to build on that then it could be a major season for him.

Thorgan Hazard:

The younger brother of Eden will be spending another season away from Chelsea. That was not really a surprise, but what is something of a surprise is that he is returning to Zulte Waregam for another season. It was thought that Thorgan would end up at maybe Anderlecht but it has been confirmed now that Waregam is his destination. Last season he started to make a name for himself and that is something for him to build on. Another good season in Belgium would certainly put on a good footing for his future.

Danny Pappoe:

A first loan move this time and it is one that is probably long overdue. The 19 year old center back will be going on loan to Colchester United for a 6 month spell. Danny has struggled over the last few seasons with injury which is why he is only making this loan move now. He has the ability to play in League 1 for sure and given time it could prove to be the next step that he has been waiting a long time for. The injury situation will hopefully be over for him now and he can get a full 6 months of football under his belt.

Sam Walker:

Another player returning to a club he knows, Sam Walker has been confirmed as spending the first 6 months of the season back at Colchester United where he had a successful spell last season and will join Danny Pappoe. Sam has just returned from the pre season tour with the first team. It was expected that Sam will move on loan for this season to gain more experience. Goalkeepers tend to take a longer path to top flight first team football and Sam is a very good keeper. More experience can only be a good thing for Sam and that is what he will get at Colchester.

Matej Delac:

20 year old goalkeeper Delac is another player who has struggled with loan moves. Unsuccesful loans at Vitesse, Dynamo Ceske Budejovice, Vitoria Guimaraes and Inter Zapresic has seen on 14 appearances to his since joined Chelsea in 2009. This season however that is likely to chance as he joins FK Vojvodnia for the season. Vojvodnia play in the serbian league and will surely give Delac the games that he so badly needs. There were high for Delac when he signed for Chelsea but the longer he goes without games the harder it will be for him.

There will most definitely be more players going out on loan before the window closes, one of those will be Wallace. Having put in an impressive performance for the first team on tour it was confirmed that the young Brazilian will spend the season on loan somewhere to be confirmed in Europe.

Finally this week there was match action to speak of. The U18's officially kicked pre season off with a 2 - 0 win against Brighton and Hove Albion at Cobham. The goals were scored by Charly Musonda and Nias Butungu, the U18's then flew off to Salzburg Austria for a training camp which will finish with them playing a game against Bayern Munich. Highlights of the brighton game here:

The U21's have also been in match action this week but out in the US. The first game that they played was on Sunday against the Philadelphia Union, the game ended in a 1 - 1 draw in which Dermot Drummy used the whole of his squad, the goalscorer for this game was Alex Kiwomya. They followed that up with a game the next day against New York Red Bulls and managed to run out 2 - 0 winners with the goals coming from Kiwomya again and John Swift. During this tour it has also been confirmed that West Brom's talented youngster Isaiah Brown has signed for Chelsea and went on the tour of the US with the U21's.

Finally there has been confirmation of fixtures for the U21's. As previously mentioned there has been another change to the format, this year the U21's will play in one national team of 22 teams and Chelsea will play each team ONCE half of the games at home and half of them away from home. At the end of the league campaign the top 4 teams will play off to decide the champions. Chelsea will have to this year play at least 3 of their games at the Bridge and only a maximum of 3 games will be allowed to be played at Cobham which means Aldershot and Brentford will host the majority of U21's games this season.

This means that there will be a maximum of 23 games that the U21's will play which about the same as last season. However a player on loan in the championship could potentially play double that which is why loan moves will always be a major consideration for clubs developing young players. However with the NextGen Series and UEFA's fival competition will provide additional fixture for the players who will play in the U21's league this season.

Also a new feature for the coming season is an U21's cup competition. This will involve teams from outside the Elite league, it is a nice feature for the U21's as cup competitions always have that extra edge to them as they are one off knock out games. So plenty to look forward to again this season.

In the coming week the U18's will have a friendly against Bayern Munich whilst in Austria and the U21's will play away to Sutton United on Tuesday and i am sure the confirmation of some more loans.

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Carefree & KTBFFH!