ja1

Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Guti, Raul and Scweinsteiger all had the luxury of 'B' teams, which obviously we can't use. Hierro had made 60 appearances for Valladolid by the time he joined Madrid. Owen was actually good enough as a teenager to be starting for Liverpool, and therefore he did (Aké is not good enough to be starting). Gerrard was a regular starter by the time he was 19 too, because he was just already good enough at the time. Totti too, was a regular starter at 18. De Rossi is possibly the only example who will have done what you want Aké to do and just start as a squad player and grow into the role when he could be doing what the rest of them did and start week in week out at the level he is at. The loan system is very useful and something we should take advantage of. The youth players who are coming into our squad next season (Kalas, KDB, Lukaku) + Bertrand all had successful loans prior to their first season with Chelsea, as did Sturridge, our first sort of successful transition from reserves to first team since Terry. It also doesn't help that Aké would currently be 6th choice midfielder when we play 2 in midfield, ignoring the possibilities of Luiz/Oscar/KDB there.

One of Ivan/Kalas will be backup RB.

Nice interview here: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10579247._/ And Kane has revealed that he opted to return to Ewood instead of taking up the offer of a loan with a Premier League side, believing another season with Bowyer is the right thing for his career. "There were Championship clubs and Premier League clubs interested but this was a great opportunity for me." Also mentions that he met with Mourinho.

I've never seen him do it but I think I remember an Arsenal fan saying Cazorla does it, not sure though.

Ten mins of 2012-13 Josh McEachran highlights at Middlesborough(YouTube link): http://goo.gl/L4uK8h There are more videos of highlights of him with the England U21s and of his appearances against Indonesia XI on the channel. If you can't be bothered to watch all 10 minutes make sure you see 0:50.

He only played CB as we don't have Omeruo or Luiz, and as Azpi is away Ivan filled out at RB. Essentially we had loads of midfielders but just Terry, Cahill and Kalas at CB. Showed today that he is a midfielder.

Surprised at the amount of votes for Moses who was his usual lacking of brain self. Having said that, him and Schurrle will be good squad players. Shame we spent £18million on one of them. Sturridge is better than both, but let's not go there..

If we stay 4-2-3-1 there's currently a third space up for grabs..I can see KDB making it his own.

He seems excellent when counter attacking. He times his runs well and uses his pace to good effect. However he'll also need to learn how to hold the ball up better, when the other team sits back, it's sometimes like he's trying to still force a counter when it's better to pass the ball and recycle possession, and improve on intricate play around the box with our midfielders

Good performance from him today, goal and assist (and started the move off that ended with his goal), at times you could tell he was 17..but other times you probably couldn't. Looking forward to seeing more of him in the youth sides hopefully.

I love how he gets compared to so many different players, a testimony to how well his all round game is..indeed yesterday he was playing like Mata has played for us in the past.

I didn't know he was so big, has a big presence in midfield. He looked ok in his half, I did like his one touch positive passing. He didn't really do anything Essien didn't do though.

A Serie A club would suit him, or there is an opening at Bayer Leverkusen isn't there? They've just sold Diego Carvajal back to Madrid, Wallace is a similar RB from what I've heard about Carvajal, should have used him in the Schurrle deal to bring the price down.

Seconded.

Great game from him today, looked tired in the last 5-10 minutes, understandable given the heat and humidity.

Are Zulte in Europe next season?

He seems very focused on staying at Chelsea at the moment. He turned down an U19 call up this season to go with Chelsea for pre-season, and rumours today said he rejected a loan to stay at Chelsea.

As a backup RB to Azpi and further cover for CB, he definitely makes sense. I thought Ivan looked better at CB than RB last season. RBs: Azpi, Kalas CBs: Terry, Luiz, Ivan, Cahill LBs: Cole, Bertrand Certain amount of balance to it. Kalas essentially replaces Ferriera in that but he'll be used more I reckon. I still wouldn't mind a Kalas loan however in the PL/La Liga/Bundesliga where he's starting week in week out and then just using Essien as a backup RB like how he was used at Madrid.

I agree with the tougher loan bit. I hope that Vitesse get Europa League next season (they are in qualification rounds again) so at least it means PVA and Kakuta can move up a level and experience European opposition - and also means most people can then actually watch Vitesse!I was hoping he got a PL loan TBH, although he's done well and settled at Vitesse I still think we should have been aggressive, given him to a PL team where he can push for a starting place, and then see how he does. We are in the market for a new, young LB with Cole declining(slowly but surely) and just having year by year contracts, I think it'd be naive to write off PVA as that LB, he could still have a chance at Chelsea IMO.

Islam Feruz - Chelsea FC: http://t.co/0zd9vFPlrw (YouTube link)

Twitter rumours going round that he's off to Fulham on loan.

Bit surprised it's not to a Championship club, maybe that'll be for the second half of the season.

On Bertrand Traore (And Others) http://t.co/Ox3hQLpHru

That's a shame, but it was clear it must happen. I still think he will become a good player eventually. I felt the same way about Matic and also think Kakuta will eventually become a good player too, smart of the club to learn from mistakes and insert that buy back clause. At Leicester he seemed to actually get some form as a DM. Scored some nice goals.

I did say when he went out on loan last season earlier on this thread how I'm not that big a fan of his..but at Blackburn he quietly did well. Blackburn fan I know was full of praise for him and thought he should have been called up for England U21s. A full season there, hopefully starting could be great for him. Lots of competition at RB, a good season now and he could put himself into a strong position to stamp his authority.