Chelsea looked energetic and fluid in attack during the preseason, while players like Cesare Casadei and Andrey Santos dominated the midfield and Raheem Sterling appeared to be a shell of his former self moving forward.
Sterling has been among the best players in the 2023–24 Premier League season one month later, but the Blues continue to show a lack of imagination in the final third, especially down the left flank. Both Santos and Casadei have been loaned away.
The Blues are now 12th in the English premier flight with just four points from their first four games. Mauricio Pochettino’s position has only recently started, but the former Spurs manager might already be under pressure.
The loans of Casadei and Santos won’t likely have an impact on Chelsea’s performances this season, but the Blues may be starting to regret one choice for a totally different reason.
Casadei and Santos loaned out
Casadei and Santos were forced to leave the park on loan as a result of a sudden overload in the middle of the field after the arrivals of Moises Caicedo for €116 million, Romeo Lavia for €62.1 million, and Lesley Ugochukwu for €27 million.
With the addition of Enzo Fernandez and Conor Gallagher, it was obvious that neither of the young players would have an easy time earning regular playing time at Stamford Bridge.
They couldn’t have begun their respective loan moves in a more harsh contract, though. Following a six-month loan to Reading last year, 20-year-old Casadei was transferred to Championship team Leicester City, while Santos went to Nottingham Forest.
One player has already opened his account with a last-second winner and given a clever assist in the Carabao Cup, but neither has started a league game for their new side. The other has yet to make his league debut.
Naturally, Casadei, an Italy U20 star now on loan from Chelsea for the 2023–24 season, has had the more successful start to life.
Santos, on the other hand, has only made one appearance for Nottingham Forest (in a 1-0 Carabao Cup loss to Burnley) and is yet to be named to his new team’s Premier League matchday squad.
Of course, he was ineligible against parent club Chelsea, but Santos was omitted from the team to face Manchester United a week prior.
At just 19 years old, the Brazilian still needs a lot of development to become a regular figure in the Premier League, but his pre-season performances were so encouraging that he deserves consistent minutes on loan.
However, Forest’s summer business suggests that might be unlikely. Ibrahim Sangare and Nicolas Dominguez were both signed on Transfer Deadline Day from PSV Eindhoven and Bologna respectively and are both central midfielders.
Steve Cooper’s first-team roster presently includes Sangare, Dominguez, Santos, Ryan Yates, Danilo, Orel Mangala, Cheikhou Kouyate, Jonjo Shelvey, and Harry Arter as his nine center midfielders.
Only two midfielders are expected to start because the former England U17 boss has primarily favored a 3-4-3 style since Nottingham Forest’s promotion to the Premier League. But if Cooper deploys Danilo in a more significant position, as he has occasionally this campaign, that number might rise to three.
In any event, Santos is up against eight other midfielders for a spot in Forest’s starting XI, and because the Brazilian is on loan, he might end up on the bench.
Sangare (€35m), Danilo (€20m), Mangala (€13m) and Dominguez (€10m) have all been purchased since Forest’s promotion to the Premier League and Cooper is a huge fan of the hard-working Yates too.
The last-minute additions of Sangare and Dominguez signal that Cooper had identified central midfield as a area of slight weakness at Forest, which doesn’t bode well for Santos.
Forest may be fighting for survival this year and persisting with a talented, but inexperienced, loanee from Chelsea is not something that Cooper will prioritise over a more experienced professional.
After all, Sangare has played European football with PSV and has over 225 senior appearances to his name, while Dominguez was Bologna’s captain.
Given Chelsea need Santos to pick up consistent gametime to ensure the loan move works, Nottingham Forest doesn’t seem like the ideal destination right now.
Furthermore, Lyon expressed their interest in signing Santos and considering their struggles in Ligue 1, the former Vasco da Gama star would likely have seen regular minutes at the Groupama Stadium.
There is still plenty of time for Santos to establish himself at Nottingham Forest, but the vast number of quality central midfielders at Cooper’s disposal means the young Brazilian may not feature all that much.
As a result, Chelsea might be ruing their decision to deny Santos a loan move to Lyon in favour of the City Ground.
