Chelsea’s focus in the transfer window should now turn towards finding their first-team player a loan move.
There’s countless examples of Chelsea using the loan system in a very smart way.
For example, young players such as Andrey Santos and Angelo Gabriel benefited from loan spells away from Stamford Bridge last season.
Omari Hutchinson is another individual that excelled away from Chelsea last year. In fact, Ipswich Town have already signed him on a permanent transfer this summer.
Chelsea need to find Lesley Ugochukwu a loan move
The Chelsea Chronicle thinks that it would be a really sensible decision to put Blues midfielder Lesley Ugochukwu out on loan next season.
The 20-year-old played just 15 times for Chelsea during his debut season with them last year. It could be even harder for him to get minutes in the upcoming campaign, too.
There should now be a real focus on sorting his future after what’s just happened.
Ugochukwu was drafted into France’s preliminary squad for the Olympic Games this summer. He’s reportedly been dropped by French manager Thierry Henry, though.
Journalist Fabrice Hawkins claims via X that Ugochukwu has been cut from the France squad for the Olympics.
£23m midfielder must play minutes
Chelsea paid £23m (BBC) to sign Ugochukwu from Rennes last summer.
The 6ft 3in Frenchman is a towering defensive midfielder with a real presence on the pitch when he sits in the No 6 position.
Unfortunately, we’d guess he might be quite far down the pecking order for that role next season.
Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo are genuine options to play as a No 6, which is a really important but under new head coach Enzo Maresca. In addition, Romeo Lavia will be fit again after a long-term injury and is tailor-made for that position.
It will be great to see Ugochukwu join an English club next season as he continues to get to grips with life in the Premier League. He’s certainly good enough to play for a top division club.
