The Hard Tackle brings you a roundup of the major news stories doing the rounds regarding Chelsea FC.
The 21-year-old Nathan Ake was subject to a surprise recall by Chelsea. Ake’s impressive performances this season for AFC Bournemouth have done enough to convince Conte that the versatile youngster is good enough to compete for a first team place in his squad.
Prior to leaving for Stamford Bridge, Ake spoke to the Cherries’ official website and looked back at his 6 month loan spell with happiness, insisting that he returned to London a better player than he came after breaking into the first team squad in November.
He said, “Over the six months I feel I have developed as a player, both on and off the pitch. To start with I wasn’t playing too much, but I dealt with that mentally, kept going and was happy when I got my chance.” Needless to say, manager Eddie Howe had a big role to play in his development.
Speaking about the 39-year-old’s contribution to his game, he said, “I was able to learn a lot from the manager. He spoke to me a lot about how I could improve and I picked up a lot of little ideas and different ways of thinking.”
After a slow start to the season which saw him spend most of his time on the bench until November, Ake made 8 consecutive Premier League appearances as a centerback, and thoroughly impressed. He also scored 3 goals in the process including winners against Stoke and Liverpool.
Chelsea seldom call back any players back in the middle of the season as they have with Ake, which just makes his return even more impressive. The 21-year-old would seamlessly fit into Chelsea’s back 3 as a left sided center back on paper, but it remains to be seen if he is able to oust Gary Cahill from the role.
Speaking about his Chelsea return, Ake said, “The ambition now is to continue to improve and break into the team at Chelsea. It’s a great team and the manager there has given me a lot of confidence, so it’s something I’m looking forward to.”
At the opposite end of the spectrum, fellow Chelsea loanee Alex Kiwomya has recently extended his stay at League 2 side Crewe Alexandra and will not be subject to a Stamford Bridge recall despite having an impressive 6 month spell in Cheshire.
In a statement released by Crewe on their official site, the club announced that they had successfully managed to extend Kiwomya’s initial 6 month loan spell at the club until the remainder of the current campaign, making him eligible for the play-offs.
The 20-year-old winger has been in superb form for Steve Davis’ side this season and become an integral part of his first team squad. He’s managed to make 25 appearances in all competitions this season, scoring 7 goals and getting 4 assists in the process.
Kiwomya recently stated in an interview that despite facing a tough decision ahead of him, he did not wish to go to a place where he would not be as involved in the first team as he is now, as did not want to spend too much time on the bench.
Kiwomya has been one of Chelsea’s finest exports this season and his progress is likely being closely monitored by the Blues. This deal seems to be the best possible scenario for all parties, as Crewe get to retain an important player, Kiwomya gets regular game time and Chelsea will get a far better player at the end of the season, than the one they sent out.
Moving on from youngsters to a legend, former Chelsea center-back Ricardo Carvalho is the latest player to make the switch to the Chinese Super League. According to the Daily Mail, he will reunite with Andres Villas Boas and joins up with former Blues midfielder, Oscar.
Former Blues Ricardo Carvalho has joined Chinese Super League side Shanghai SIPG. pic.twitter.com/vULCLOd7FN
— ️ (@AddictedToCFC) January 7, 2017
Prior to making the move official, Villas Boas was full of praise for the legendary defender. “I have a good relationship with Carvalho, who has a wonderful professional career,” he said. “I’m impressed by the composure he showed on his first day of training. Right now he’s just training with us. We’ll make a decision in due time.”
The former Real Madrid, Monaco and Porto defender was spotted training with the Chinese side a few days ago. Current Shanghai boss Andres Villas Boas knows Carvalho well from his time at Porto and Chelsea, having won numerous titles together.
The 38-year-old is just the latest one in the long line of big names to join the club, but the most surprising aspect of this move is that it is free of cost for the Chinese giants. Having spent huge sums of money on the likes of Oscar, Hulk, Ramires and Alex Texeira, this move comes as a huge coup for the Shanghai outfit, given the wealth of experience and quality Carvalho would bring to the squad.