Chelsea Transfer News: Gordon Taylor Criticises Blues Loan Policy, Top Rumours
Professional Footballers' Association chairman Gordon Taylor has accused Chelsea of "warehousing" footballers after Jose Mourinho sent 33 players out on loan during the transfer window.
The union chief was quoted as pointing the finger in the Special One's direction by Tom Beck of Goal, with Taylor believing the Blues are pushing the boundaries of the "integrity" in football competitions:
"You just wonder where the number will end because it’s a pretty strong influence that one Premier League club seems to be having in so many competitions. It’s a bit of a worry with so many Chelsea players out on loan. It’s almost a warehousing of players. You wonder whether it brings into question the integrity of the various competitions.
From a player’s point of view, you can see they would want to go out on loan if there is not a first-team place available. But Chelsea have an academy so you have to wonder how it is they have such a phenomenal number of players out there.
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Taylor also questioned the logic behind managers farming out large parts of their squads, stating club relationships could have an unfair influence on which teams win trophies, per Beck:
"Players want to play and the loan system gives them that chance. But then there are players at these clubs in Europe who are denied the chance because others are coming in with their parent clubs paying their wages. It makes that option more attractive.
So then it is not about the best team winning a particular competition, it is about who has the best relationship with the biggest clubs. It’s not so much something that we’ve been alerted to. It’s something that you can’t fail to notice because it has been such a phenomenal number of players out there.
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The loan system in England has exploded in recent years as the reserve league has become a less useful development tool. The Under-21 Premier League does allow older players to take part, but clubs now view first-team football at a smaller team as preferable.
European football recently spent in excess of £100 million on loan deals, as reported by Beck, making the market extremely lucrative, as well as allowing individual teams to lean on the quality of players usually out of their price range.
Chelsea are certainly not the only team in the Premier League that exercise the loan option, but Mourinho's policy has been to carry a slim first-team squad and have the club's peripheral talent farmed away from their Cobham training facility.
Victor Moses is a prime example of this—recently signing a new deal with the champions, as reported by the club's official website, but spending most of his time with different teams since joining the Blues in 2012.
In three years, Moses has played 44 times for Chelsea but will now spend a season at West Ham United after putting pen to paper with Mourinho's club.
There is an ethical question to answer here, but as long as the system generates money and allows freedom of movement, all clubs will exploit the possibility. Manchester United recently sent Adnan Januzaj to Borussia Dortmund, and the young Belgian could have a huge influence on where BVB finish in the Bundesliga. This is now commonplace across the continent, but it doesn't make it right.
Chelsea Chased 11-Year-Old Anthony Martial
The signing of Anthony Martial by Manchester United became one of the central stories of transfer deadline day, but Chelsea were left disappointed, having tracked the player for eight years.
The Sun on Sunday (h/t Rob Burnett of the Mirror) reported the Blues approached Martial when he was 11, hoping to bring him to Stamford Bridge in light of interest from Manchester City.
One of the player's youth coaches, Aziz Benaaddane, told the Sun on Sunday: “Big clubs like Chelsea, [Paris Saint-Germain], City [and] Valencia all wanted to sign him. But it was decided when he was 14 that Lyon was the best club because of their academy.”
The Sunday Times (h/t James Cambridge of the Express) said Chelsea's interest remained keen in the final days of the window when Martial was on his way to the Red Devils from Monaco. Mourinho made a late bid for the striker, but Martial completed his £36 million switch to Old Trafford.
The 19-year-old made 19 starts for the Ligue 1 club last term, scoring nine times and creating three more, according to WhoScored.com.
It is obvious why Mourinho would like a player in the mould of Martial—he has pace to burn and has the ability to play ahead of a talented midfield, working the channels to allow his fellow attackers space.
Martial would have been a fine deputy for Diego Costa, and a much better long-term shot than Radamel Falcao, but United's needs were more—and the price reflects their desperation to bolster their attack.
Taylor is right to raise the issue of loan deals, with the amount of movement between some teams becoming ridiculous. The system allows teams to unfairly boost their ranks while parent clubs support the player's wage demands.
It is an uncomfortable scenario that leads to the question, when will a title be decided by a full team of on-loan footballers?
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