Nothing particularly notable about that, you may have thought.
Until you looked at Vitesse's squad list for this season, which now features no fewer than six Chelsea players.
It is the highest concentration of loan players from one British club anywhere in Europe.
Indeed Chelsea have more players out on loan than any other Premier League side – 24 now, all over Europe, three times the number of Liverpool and Tottenham.
But no other club has 'parked' their emerging players in such a concentrated fashion at one club, and the policy has attracted criticism in Holland, with Carlos Aalbers, technical director of NEC Nijmegen, advocating that the number of overseas loans should be limited to three per club.
Championship club Watford had eight players on loan from Italian side Udinese last year using a loophole which has since been closed by the Football League.
The Dutch FA say they have no problem with the Vitesse arrangement and FIFA have confirmed no rules are being broken.
The link Chelsea have with Vitesse is well established and comes from the close friendship of the two clubs' owners, Roman Abramovich and Merab Jordania – a former footballer and ex-president of the Georgian Football Federation.
The six Chelsea men in Vitesse's squad are Hutchinson, Christian Atsu, Gael Kakuta, Lucas Piazon, Patrick van Aanholt and Cristian Cuevas.
Hutchinson is the only English player involved.
It is an unusual arrangement, but not unique in Dutch football, where second division club Excelsior Rotterdam are basically a feeder for Feyenoord, and Ajax have their own satellite club in South Africa, Ajax Cape Town.
A source close to Hutchinson, who was loaned out to Nottingham Forest last season, said: "Sam had other options, but going to Arnhem was a good choice.
"The club have unbelievable facilities. The football he will be playing there will be a similar style to Chelsea's, more so than the football he would be playing in the Championship."
Vitesse, with three Chelsea loanees, finished fourth last season. They point out they are still exporting players, with talented young Holland midfielder Marco van Ginkel going the other way to Chelsea this summer and striker Wifried Bony to Swansea.
Club spokesman Wiebe Nelisson said: "We have a good relationship with Chelsea. Call it a co-operation. We benefit due to the high level of these players; Chelsea benefit by the experience they get. It does not hinder our own young players. Making the team better makes the players better. "
No comments:
Post a Comment