It’s a model that’s become more popular in recent years, but it feels like Chelsea were the first team to seriously start to stockpile and loan players in attempt to develop them and sell them on for a profit.
If you include players who are out on loan, they currently have at least 52 senior players on their books which is incredible to think about. It shows that most of them won’t get anywhere near the team and are almost treated as a commodity rather than a player.
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One of those those players appears to be on his way back to Stamford Bridge, but it would be a shock to see him involved with the first team. Lewis Baker was on his seventh loan spell since 2015 at Fortuna Dusseldorf, but he’s failed to make an impact.
A report from RP Online has suggested he failed to win the trust of the coach and didn’t get a proper chance to establish himself. As a result, they expect the German side to reach an agreement with Chelsea to terminate the loan.
This could be a big moment in Baker’s career. He was a star at youth level for Chelsea and England but he’s yet to properly establish himself anywhere, possibly due to the various loan spells.
He turns 25 next April and it’s unlikely he will get into the Chelsea first team squad, so this seems like the time for him to leave and start to become a regular somewhere else.