A very interesting – and quite puzzling – piece of transfer news has just been dropped, courtesy of Matt Law.
He says that Chelsea are set to recall Cesare Casadei from his loan at Leicester within the next few days in order to give him a chance to compete in Mauricio Pochettino’s first team squad.
This is rather odd – firstly, while he’s not playing every week with Leicester, he is getting some games and enjoying playing in a dominant team in the Championship. He’s got 25 appearances for the team top of the league, and is playing under a promising coach.
Chelsea are set to recall midfielder Cesare Casadei from his loan at Leicester City to take up a place in Mauricio Pochettino’s first-team squad. Casadei made 25 appearances and scored three goals for Leicester, who are top of the Championship #cfc
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) January 19, 2024
Secondly, the first team squad don’t really need him. Romeo Lavia and Lesley Ugochukwu will both be fit soon enough to bring depth to our central midfield areas. Casadei also plays a more attacking profile, in a role that Christopher Nkunku or Cole Palmer or Conor Gallagher can already fill.
Does this mean we’re a step closer to Gallagher going?
That fact that we can add Casadei to Andrey Santos and David Datro Fofana on the growing list of abandoned loans from this season shows what poor decisions were made on that front 6 months ago.
First off, isn’t it pretty obvious that if we’re recalling Casadei it’s a strong indication that we are considering (if not already intending) to sell Conor Gallagher?
Second, how do you conclude that the Casadei recall, combined with those of Fofana and Santos reflects poorly on the club? There’s ZERO evidence in the case of Casadei that he’s being recalled because the loan has failed. In the case of Santos, Forest lied to us (or simply didn’t consult with their manager) when they represented that he’d get playing time. And, regarding Fofana, all reports suggest that he’s failed to meet expectations and, therefore, didn’t earn the kind of time he’d/we’d hoped. To couch these as “abandoned†transfers as if this was blatant mismanagement is to misrepresent the facts (not to mention it ignores the long history of our “loan army†in which very, very few players ever developed into successful first teamers).