Bringing youngsters to your squad is always a nice way to reinforce your ranks, especially if you already own those prospects and you just let them get some minutes and continue their development elsewhere, giving them a chance to show what they can actually bring to the table when they’re needed.
A club which is having a more than questionable loan policy is Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, as the Blues tend to buy dozens of young players just to loan them everywhere and not give them a chance to shine at Stamford Bridge, often resulting in the losses of great talents such as Kevin de Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku, for instance.
And for this kind of moves, it’s getting more and more common to see talented youngsters snub Chelsea’s intentions, being the most important of them Eden’s brother Thorgan Hazard, who stated that he didn’t intend to make a move back at Stamford Bridge after not being given a chance to begin with.
Nevertheless, Abramovich and his team have recently made a move in the right direction, bringing back one of the most talented players from their academy who was having an outstanding season for Watford, earning the right to go back to his parent club sooner than expected: Nathan Ake.
The 21-year-old Dutch has been a surge since the past year, where he had a pretty decent season for Watford. However, this wasn’t enough to impress Antonio Conte, so they sent him away for another spell in a Premier League side, becoming a major force in defence for Eddie Howe’s AFC Bournemouth while also being able to contribute to 3 goals for the Cherries.
There was a lot of speculation regarding what Conte will be doing in order to reinforce his side, especially in defence where they were kind of shorthanded considering that the former skipper John Terry isn’t getting any playing time at all, but after being snubbed by a couple of first choices, such as Leonardo Bonucci, it seems like Conte preferred to look elsewhere for depth.
Ake is a very versatile youngster who can be a major addition to Conte’s system, he can play both as a fullback (mainly on the left flank) or as a centre back, being a perfect fit for the Italian boss’ 3 man defence or when he intends to switch to a more old fashioned 4 defenders scheme at the final stages of the matches.
It’s very unlikely that the Dutch will take the starting spot from Marcos Alonso or Cesar Azpilicueta, but considering how inconsistent Gary Cahill has been and Kurt Zouma just made his return from a very long absence, Ake is being seen as the first choice off the bench for the Blues.
Obviously, it’s very likely that he regresses a bit during this second half of the season due to a lack of minutes, but we still see him getting some playing time for Chelsea, and the future’s very bright at Stamford Bridge for one of the most talented defenders the Blue have had in their academy over the last few years.