Gokhan Tore's Premier League Return Should Be a Lesson for Chelsea's Youngsters

LONDON STADIUM, London — The fortunes were mixed for two players with connections to Chelsea on Sunday as West Ham United hosted Bournemouth in the Premier League.

On loan at Bournemouth from the Blues, Nathan Ake watched from the sidelines for 79 minutes at London Stadium, only subbing in following Harry Arter's red card. During the 11 minutes Ake was on the pitch, the Cherries lost the game, thanks to Michail Antonio's header five minutes from time. Ake wasn't at fault, but it still proved a debut to forget for the 21-year-old.

The cross that set up Antonio at the far post was delivered by Gokhan Tore, a summer signing for the Hammers from Besiktas.

Tore is a former member of Chelsea's youth team. He never made a first-team appearance at Stamford Bridge, and after two years at the club, he followed former academy director Frank Arnesen to Hamburg in 2011. We thought that would be the last we heard of the Turkish midfielder in English football, yet here he is, making a good early impression on loan with West Ham.

Tore hasn't left Chelsea and disappeared into the ether; he's carved out a career.

It helps that he's familiar with his current manager, Slaven Bilic, having played under him in Turkey, but it's everything Tore has done since leaving England in 2011 that is important. He's taken the scenic route to make it back to the Premier League, showing that sometimes it's best to leave a big club when the opportunity presents itself.

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Had Tore stayed at Chelsea in 2011, there's no telling where he would be now. Given the business model that has dictated the club's approach to youth development in recent years, we can confidently speculate loan moves would have been a common theme for him.

What would that have done for Tore's overall development? Would he even still be at Chelsea? Would it have made him a Premier League player in 2016? Five years ago, he didn't want to hang around to find out, and now Tore has the answer.

Playing in the Bundesliga before transferring to Rubin Kazan and then Besiktas in 2014, he's put faith in his ability to establish himself without the might of Chelsea behind him.

It hasn't always been plain sailing, but through the courage of his convictions, Tore's ended up where he had always wanted to. He's back in the Premier League and is a first-team player at West Ham.

So it was interesting to see how Tore's journey compared with Ake's. He was Watford's Young Player of the Season last year, but for all those impressive performances at Vicarage Road, the Dutchman is still not good enough for a Chelsea team lacking strength in depth across the back four.

Ake can play in defensive midfield or at left-back, which is where he spent much of his time at Watford. Chelsea need cover in the latter, yet there Ake was on Sunday, warming the bench for Bournemouth when he could be giving Chelsea something different.

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It's still early in his tenure with the Cherries, but already it feels as though the momentum from the past 12 months has been lost. It's very Patrick Bamford-esque, in that Ake built his profile only to have it chopped down by yet another loan move.

When Chelsea signed Radamel Falcao to support and challenge Diego Costa up front last year, the move came with a substantial risk. Not since his knee injury in early 2014 had the Colombian looked anything like the prolific goalscorer he had been. He had completely tanked on loan at Manchester United the previous season, too.

Chelsea decided to take a risk on Falcao instead of Bamford, who had come close to firing Middlesbrough back into the Premier League, scoring 19 goals while on loan at the Riverside Stadium. When the chance was there to give a youngster an opportunity, with spaces in the squad, Chelsea decided profile was the best way to go. It didn't matter what Bamford had done; he didn't have Falcao on the back of his shirt.

One goal and untold millions in wages later, the decision failed spectacularly, much like Chelsea's season. All the while, Bamford fell victim to the politics of loan moves that run the risk of managers picking the players they own over those who are just passing through.

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At Crystal Palace and then Norwich City, Bamford became a forgotten man. He doesn't even have a loan move in place this summer to give him first-team football for 2016/17, so he is under the radar and training with Chelsea's development squads.

There was never any guarantee he would flourish in Jose Mourinho's struggling Chelsea team last season, but there's every chance he would have at least matched Falcao's contribution. And had he not, at least Chelsea would have had their answer on a striker whose ability in front of goal divides opinion.

It's the same with Ake now. While Chelsea are scouring the transfer market looking for defensive reinforcements, they could have done much worse than actually putting faith in Ake to develop with them. Behind Cesar Azpilicueta in the pecking order, he would allow Antonio Conte to rotate players in games that allow for it, such as Bristol Rovers in the EFL Cup.

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Tore never did hang around to take those risks. He joined Hamburg, and at three years Ake's senior, he is back in England and looking all the better for the decisions he made. He's a senior player with experience, and he's free of the shackles of being an up-and-coming prospect.

Tore left Chelsea to prove himself. By virtue of his transfer to West Ham this summer—albeit a loan with a view to a permanent move—he has gone some way towards doing that.

For any Chelsea youngsters considering the right move for their careers—and there are plenty—Tore's example is one they should pay close attention to. Who knows, it could be them.

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.