gougler08 said:
Why have you guys let so many people go out on loan? I thought the whole strategy of hoarding and loaning is then actually keeping them when you need the depth
A lot of the young guys like Chalobah, Ake, and Traore wanted first team football, leading to their sale. At least we put in buyback clauses this time.
As far as loans, the only players I see loaned in this window that might have helped the club were Aina, RLC, and Zouma. Zouma needed the loan to get serious PT now that he's back from injury. CB isn't exactly where we need strengthening so it's not a loan I regret. Hopefully he crushes it for them this year and then is back competing for a starting spot next season. RLC doesn't have the workrate for Conte and was pushed from midfield to striker as a result. He was unimpressive last year and was loaned this year because he likely wasn't in Conte's plans. Aina similarly rode the bench all last season. He needed a loan for development/minutes, although he is in a position of desperate need for us. I think when you look at our transfer targets (Sandro, Danilo, Mendy) it's clear that Conte want's to reinforce our fullbacks/wingbacks significantly, so it would make sense to allow Aina to go out on loan. Of course, that all depends on the board actually closing the deal on one of those players, but that's more to what I was discussing in a previous post.
But Trevas is right, the loan army is really meant to supply the club with a steady flow of finances. Buy a kid for 3 million when he's young, if he doesn't develop much sell him on for the same, if he does develop sell him on for a profit. In the event that one of the kids is good enough to crack the first team, that's an added bonus, moreso than the priority. It's fundamentally a rather different system than most teams and is an important revenue flow into the club now that it is expected to be self sufficient.
