Chelsea Transfer News: Loaning Lucas Piazon to Vitesse Is a Masterstroke

Since when did Chelsea become the blueprint for how to handle young stars?

For the second year in a row, Chelsea has loaned out Lucas Piazon to another European club. The Blues confirmed on their website that the 19-year-old Brazilian is heading off to Vitesse until the end of the 2013/14 season.

Go back to the 2010 or 2011 season, and the worry surrounding Chelsea was what would happen once the likes of Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Didier Drogba started to reach the twilight of their careers.

How would the Blues recover?

Well, owner Roman Abramovich did what he does best: he threw money at the problem.

As a result, Chelsea have one of the most talented cores of young players in England. There's only so many spots to go around, so the club has been forced to loan out their young starlets until they're ready to compete for a first-team place.

For the most part, it's been a rousing success. Thibaut Courtois has become the best young goalkeeper in the world at Atletico Madrid and Kevin de Bruyne looks poised for a huge season after spending last year at Werder Bremen.

Piazon has not been as lucky. He spent the second half of last year on loan at Malaga and made 11 league appearances and two in the Champions League. As a whole, he hasn't developed as much to this point in his career as hoped.

Piazon is an example of a player making the leap to a top European club too early in his career. As a 17-year-old, he made the move to Stamford Bridge from Sao Paulo. While looking like a promising player, Piazon wasn't far enough along in his development to earn a place in the Chelsea squad.

Fast forward a couple of years, and that's still the case. But given his age, there's no reason to believe that in another year or two, Piazon can't become a regular member of Chelsea's first team.

That's why the loan deal to Vitesse is nothing short of brilliant.

He's going to grow so much as a footballer in just one season in Holland. When Piazon comes back to Stamford Bridge, he will not only have gotten better by playing every week, he will have become a much more intelligent player on the pitch. Piazon will have gotten a better understanding of what his role on the team is and how best to utilize his skills.

The Eredivisie is no doubt a step below Ligue 1, the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga.

While the argument could be made that Chelsea should have loaned him out to a better club, the Eredivisie is the kind of league where young midfielders can flourish. Piazon should be able to get much more playing time at Vitesse than had he gone to another, tougher league.

More importantly, he'll become a much more positionally-aware footballer. The best young players only get so far by relying on their talent alone. Sooner or later, they have to learn their optimal position on the pitch and what kind of runs to make in order to maintain the team's balance.

That's where Piazon is right now. He needs to learn how to harness his talent while also fitting in with the team dynamic. When that happens, Chelsea will have a real player on their hands.

Look at how much Marco van Ginkel, now a Chelsea player, grew in Arnhem. Just over a year older than Piazon, Van Ginkel has become an extremely polished player for his age on account of making 93 league appearances for the Vitesse first team.

By this time next year, Piazon should be primed to make an impact at Stamford Bridge.