According to Goal.com, Jose Mourinho has sent three players out on loan this year. While Gael Kakuta and Patrick van Aanholt have extended their loan tenure in Vitesse, Eden Hazard’s younger brother Thorgan has been loaned to Belgian side ZulteWaregem.Both Gael Kakuta and Aanholt helped Dutch club Vitesse last season to finish the league only behind Ajax, who were the winners. So it seems both Chelsea and Vitesse came to a quick decision on extending their contract.
Meanwhile, Thorgan Hazard has been also inflicted to stay at the Belgian club. Getting transferred from French side Lens last year, this younger brother of Eden Hazard was soon sent to Belgium; where he could develop himself through competitive matches rather than sitting idle as an understudy behind his brother Eden.
Mourinho has always been keen to loan out youngsters to give them opportunities to play competitive football. So, it is quite natural that he has sent these three players aboard.
In other news, Mourinho has insisted that he wants a competitive striking force than what they had last year. With Ba and Torres the Blues relied heavily on their midfield to get on the score sheets, but the addition of Romelu Lukaku and Andre Schurrle, Mourinho seems confident with the force although he is still on the market for a potential goal scorer.
Whereas Lukaku has developed himself with his loan spell at West Brom, Schurrle has been signed from German side Bayer Leverkusen this season in an attempt to add more versatility to their attacking line-up. The Portuguese manager has always wanted to spread a competitive attitude among his team players to get the best out of them and was reported as saying:
“I think Fernando should be happy because we have competition in the team and that is good for everybody in every position,”
In addition to that, he seems delighted to get the service of Lukaku, who scored 17 goals in 20 appearances for the Albions last year.
Mourinho added: “I think Fernando will be pleased because during his time at Chelsea he was basically the only striker and then after that there was the arrival of Ba in January. “Now the team has three strikers [Except Torres] and that is good.”
Now the real question is, with a renewed striking force (even without big names), can Mourinho challenge for the title against the likes of Man City who have almost reshaped the entire team.