So Sad: reason while Jack Cork shiuld live the club before….
Jack Cork exclusive: Chelsea upbringing, learning on loan and why Burnley feels like home
From his upbringing at Chelsea, to learning curves on loan, Jack Cork explains why he now feels at home at Burnley
After a childhood spent supporting them, and more than a decade on their books, Chelsea will always have a special place in the heart of Burnley midfielder Jack Cork. But home is not where the heart is, home is Turf Moor.
The boyhood Chelsea fan was often seen around the touchline at Stamford Bridge, fulfilling his ball-boy duties as a promising member of the club’s academy. Cork would go on to captain the club at youth and reserve level, but that chance to emulate the players he’d sat just feet away from as a child never materialised.
With Frank Lampard, Claude Makélélé, Michael Essien and Michael Ballack – a star-studded list of midfielders at the peak of their powers – ahead of Cork in the pecking order, life on loan beckoned. It’s a path many coming through the ranks at Chelsea have, and continue to, experience.
Chelsea’s perceived overuse of the loan market as a means of providing game time for the stockpile of young talent on their books often draws criticism. Cork was sent out on eight separate occasions himself before leaving the club without a single minute of first-team football to his name.
But, as the 30-year-old explains exclusively to Sky Sports, Chelsea’s relentless pursuit to secure the very best opportunities for their young players has been priceless in his development.
From his very first loan and taste of senior football with Bournemouth in 2006, to two spells at Burnley that played a key role in his decision to move to the club permanently in 2017, without the loans, he would not be the player, or person, he is today.
“It would have to be the first one,” Cork replies, without a moment’s hesitation when asked to recall his favourite loan spell. “When I look back at it, and how much fun it was, what a great experience it was.