Academy Week in Review

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As always it has been a busy week in the Chelsea FC Academy. Pre-season training has been well under way with a number of young players joining in with the first team training sessions due to the small squad while players are still coming back.

The biggest news of the week involves a number of loan moves. Tomas Kalas and Patrick Van Aanholt have both gone back to our unofficial link up club Vitesse Arnhem. Both spent time there last season with different results. Tomas Kalas had a very successful loan and impressed everyone while Patrick Van Aanholt had mixed results during his time there. Both will be looking to have big seasons and come back to Chelsea next season to push for places in the first team squad. On top of that Tomas Kalas has signed a new contract with Chelsea which ties him to the club until 2017.

Two more loan moves have also happened. Firstly U21’s player Rohan Ince has joined Yeovil Town on loan for 6 months. Rohan is a big strong lad who will find himself well able to cope with the football in League 1, injuries have hampered him development at Chelsea and I would imagine that this loan move will be with a view to find a club for him permanently at the end of the season when his current contract runs out. Also joining the ranks of players going on loan is Mexican attacking midfielder Ulises Davilla. Davilla is moving to the Spanish second division with CE Sabadell, he will be looking to play as many games as possible and acclimatise to European football and hopefully work his way back into the Mexican national team to make his work permit application go through. As always with Chelsea loanees we wish them all the best.

The Chelsea first team are making their way to America now to take part in their pre-season tour and it would seem that a number of academy players have gone with them. Todd Kane, Lucas Piazon, George Saville, Patrick Bamford and Jamal Blackman all seem to be on the plane off the states. Due to the delayed nature of players returning to pre-season it is always an opportunity for young players to make a statement in the first game(s) of pre-season. Again we look forward to seeing what they can do out there.

Nathaniel Chalobah was in England action at the U19’s Euros and made it to the semi final stage being beaten by Greece. Chalobah was played in an unfamiliar position of right back for most of the tournament and England will feel they could have done better but it all very good experience for the young Chelsea man.

The football finally returns this weekend for the academy with the U18’s kicking things off with a game at Cobham against Torquay United, kick off at 12:00pm and then later in the day at 3:00pm the U21’s get their pre-season started with an away game at Northwood FC. Details of the games will be in next week’s review, hopefully both groups will get things off to a positive start.

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