Intra-Premier League loan deals starting to pay off

Daniel Sturridge and Danny Welbeck’s impressive starts to the season are testament to the advantages that can be gained from domestic loan spells.

So why don’t more managers of the Premier League’s top clubs send their young players out on loan to teams lower down the table?

In the past there seems to have been a belief that young players would benefit from first team opportunities in the lower leagues.

However, since Jack Wilshere’s successful short-term move to Bolton in the 2010 January transfer window, managers have started to see the advantages of keeping their players in the Premier League.

On returning to Arsenal, Wilshere became an important first-team player for both club and country.

Wilshere made a name for himself on loan at Bolton.

Last season Welbeck and Sturridge both enjoyed impressive loan spells at Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers respectively.

Although Welbeck only managed six goals in 26 league games for the Black Cats last term, he was often deployed in a wide position and a couple of injuries hindered his progress.

Despite this, a number of top drawer performances endeared him to fans at the Stadium of Light and his time there has largely been heralded as a success.

Sturridge moved to Bolton in the January transfer window and notched an incredible eight goals in just 12 games for the Trotters.

Since returning to their parent clubs, both Welbeck and Sturridge have broken into the first teams at Manchester United and Chelsea.

Welbeck has bagged five goals in 11 games for the reds, while Sturridge has the same number in just eight matches.

Stiff Competition

Their form is even more impressive given the amount of attacking talent at both Manchester United and Chelsea.

Welbeck has risen above both Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen in the pecking order at Old Trafford, while Sturridge is competing with the likes of Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba.

If you’re still not convinced that the form of the Daniels is down to their loan experiences then I will throw the likes of Tom Cleverly and Kyle Walker into the mix as further evidence.

Cleverley's spell at Wigan has helped him win a first-team spot at Old Trafford

Both Cleverley and Walker started this campaign in their respective first-teams at Manchester United and Tottenham after loan spells at Wigan and Aston Villa last year.

Prior to his move to the DW Stadium, Cleverley had in fact been on loan at two other clubs, Leicester City and Watford.

He featured regularly for both sides yet on returning to Old Trafford he remained in the reserves.

While no doubt Cleverley gained a lot from his time in the Championship, it is clear that regular games in the top flight with Wigan allowed him to progress much more quickly.

This is probably largely due to the fact that he was surrounded by better players than he was even in the ever-improving Championship.

With so many success stories, it makes you wonder why more players from the Premier League’s top teams haven’t sought loan moves to other teams in the same division.

Wasted Talent

One can’t help but think that players such as Darron Gibson at Manchester United or Jay Spearing at Liverpool could have benefited from such a move.

Both players have made a reasonable number appearances for their clubs and shown promise but without consistent first team opportunities it is hard to see them improving.

Gibson is 24 now and it looks as though we are unlikely to see much improvement in his game, something that was emphasised by Manchester United’s apparent desire to offload him to Sunderland in the summer, although that deal broke down.

The Northern Irish midfielder, spent time on loan at United’s Belgian feeder club Royal Antwerp in 2006 and Wolves during their Championship days in 2007, but one can’t help but feel he may have gained more from a Premier League club.

Jay Spearing is 22 and in the games he has played for Liverpool he has impressed but with the additions to the squad that Kenny Dalglish brought in during the summer, Spearing has only made one league appearance this term.

Surely now would be an excellent time for the youngster to make a loan move, perhaps to one of the newly promoted sides. Spearing has shown a lot of potential but needs to be playing week in week out.

Chelsea’s Josh McEachran is another young Englishman who has brought high praise from inside the club, and could also benefit from a short-term move.

The problem is the competition at these top clubs is so fierce that first-team opportunities are few and far between and often only come in the Carling Cup.

Every year we see young players at Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal leaving their clubs for nominal fees to go and play in the lower leagues.

Big Bucks

Then at the other end of the spectrum we see the same clubs splashing out millions of pounds for England’s brightest young stars.

This summer Manchester United paid around £16.5m for 19-year-old Phil Jones, Liverpool spent £20m on 21-year-old Jordan Henderson and Arsenal paid Southampton £12m for Alex Oxlade Chamberlain, 18.

Given the choice, I have no doubt Messrs. Ferguson, Dalglish and Wenger would rather have brought such talent through their youth system for free.

Bearing all this in mind one can’t help but wonder whether players such as the former Liverpool striker, Neil Mellor, could have become global superstars with the help of a simple loan move.

Actually, Mellor did spend time on loan at Wigan shortly after they were promoted to the top flight. Well you know what they say; you can’t polish…

Neil Mellor: Could have been the next big thing?

Gasperini first to fall off the (not-so-)merry-go-round

Gian Piero Gasperini is the first high profile managerial casualty of the season, following his sacking by Inter Milan this week.

And with a host of Europe’s top clubs beginning their seasons sluggishly he may not be out of a job for too long.

Despite stating his desire to remain at Arsenal for “another 14 years”, Arsene Wenger’s tenure at the club is looking increasingly unstable.

For Wenger’s prayers to be answered, his backline must experience a transformation akin to that of Torres between the 46^th and 82^nd minutes of last weekend’s match with Manchester United.

In other words they need to stop clinically burying the ball into the back of their own goal and start blazing it into the stands. “Safety first, lads”.

                                Arsenal should defend like Torres finishes.

It seems Wenger’s loyalty and achievements for Arsenal in the past are saving him for now but the majority of under-fire managers around Europe do not have such a kinship with their clubs to rely on.

This was the case with Gasperini who was dismissed by Inter after just five competitive matches in charge.

Managerial Pressure

There have been slow starts at more of Europe’s top clubs with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC Milan and Marseille already a few points off the pace.

One would expect Messrs. Guardiola and Mourinho to be allowed time to improve, and no doubt they will do just that. After all they are only 2 and 3 points off the top of La Liga, although a couple of surprising results have shown their clubs’ respective fallibility.

Allegri, at Milan, is likely to have some breathing space too, afforded to him by his team’s Serie A triumph last season. Deschamps has also enjoyed a successful tenure at Marseille so should be safe for now.

Waiting to Cash In

However, check out these managerial “dolites” waiting to pounce:

• Rafael Benitez – Since departing Inter Milan in 2010, old Rafa seems to have been happy keeping himself occupied with facial grooming and the odd bit of punditry. He was rumoured to have been approached by Valencia earlier this year despite current coach Unai Emery’s reasonable success. Still, with a Champions League, UEFA Cup and two La Liga medals to his name he will be linked with every big job going.

Benitez: more popular with Gillette than Gillett.

• Carlo Ancelotti – Following his somewhat unfair dismissal from Chelsea last season, this Italian veteran should be on every club’s radar. If it weren’t for his strong connections with Milan I’m sure he would have been in the running for the Inter job. One Premier League title, one FA Cup, one Serie A title, one Coppa Italia and two Champions League victories make for an impressive CV.

• Bernd Schuster – People forget he won the La Liga title in his first season in charge at Real Madrid. Unemployed since an unsuccessful spell at Besiktas, his constant confrontations with the media have perhaps held him back. Still a high-profile name out of work.

And I’ve not even mentioned the likes of Mark Hughes, Martin O’Neill and Alan Curbishly on the domestic front.

So with the tolerance of boards at an all time low and a host of experienced, unemployed managers waiting in the wings, pressure on Europe’s top bosses is growing.

Gasperini’s demise has not quite set the merry-go-round spinning, as Inter have employed the previously out of work Claudio Ranieri in his place.

This seems a somewhat unusual appointment due to the “tinkerman’s” apparent reluctance to remain at a club for more than two seasons (he hasn’t done so in 4 jobs since leaving Chelsea in 2004). Nevertheless, the Inter board seem to be aware of this as his contract only runs to 2013. 


Merry-go-round

Still, with unpredictable results cropping up all over Europe, it’s surely a matter of time before football’s ever more ruthless boards start applying the pressure and setting the managerial carousel into over drive.

Who knows, in the not so-distant-future Steve Kean could be brushing up on his Italian and the “special one” could be tucking into some Venky’s chicken with David Dunn.

                      Couldn't resist posting this. Never gets old.

The EA Sports Index - De Gea top keeper?

So, as we go into the fourth weekend of the new Premier League season, David De Gea is officially the best goalkeeper in the league.

Or at least he is according to the EA Sports Player Performance Index, the official player rating index for the Barclays Premier League.

And statistics don’t lie. Except when they do. In this case, they clearly do. In fact, if you believe everything you read in the press, David De Gea is actually the worst goalkeeper in the league.

Now I’m not saying De Gea is the worst keeper in the division. Far from it. But based on the three matches so far he has been at fault for two of the three goals Manchester United have conceded this season (Shane Long’s for West Brom and Theo Walcott’s for Arsenal); hardly scintillating form.

The EA Sports Index takes a number of things into account when calculating a player’s performance.

1)      Winning Performance – i.e. the success of the team as a whole. Fortunately for De Gea Manchester United’s attacking players have been in fine form this season and the team has maximum points from the first three fixtures.

2)      Player’s Performance per match – points are awarded for the individual’s positive influence on the game. Perhaps surprisingly, De Gea has actually made more saves than any other keeper in the league (17). This has naturally boosted his score, as has his penalty save against Arsenal.

3)      Appearances – As a goalkeeper, De Gea has played every minute of the season so far, as have most keepers in the division.

4)      Goals Scored – He’s no Jose Luis Chilavert.

5)      Assists – Man United are not exactly a route one side.

6)      Clean Sheets- Manchester United and De Gea have one from three games.

So, based on this points scoring system, it is clear that De Gea has achieved points for Manchester United’s successes as a team as well as his remarkably high number of saves. On this basis, his place at the top of the rankings is probably justified.

However, while the Index does take points away for negative actions (yellow/red cards, shots off target) this does not seem to apply for goalkeeping mistakes. There is no doubt that De Gea should have saved both Long and Walcott’s shots yet it seems as though, in the EA Sports Index, he was not punished for these errors.

I’m not one to lay into any player, particularly a young goalkeeper, new to English football but there is not one person in the country that would say that David De Gea has been the best performing goalkeeper this season.

It is the Index, not the Spaniard that I am questioning here.

It is worth pointing out that only three matches have been played so far and hopefully the player rating tables will start to take a more accurate shape a few weeks down the line.

In the other positions the index does actually seem to be slightly more understandable, with the stars of the two Manchester teams dominating, quite rightly I would say.

Ashley Young and David Silva occupy the top two midfielders spots and Rooney and Dzeko the strikers.

Jose Bosingwa is top of the defenders, after an impressive start to the season and it is refreshing to see the likes of Steven Taylor and Stephen Ward, in the top 5, representing the so-called smaller clubs.

However, there do still seem to be slight anomalies with Shane Long a notable absentee from the top 10 strikers, despite playing every minute for West Brom and scoring goals against the defences of Manchester United and Chelsea.

Agbonlahor instead sits in sixth place, with just the one goal to his name and two 0-0 draws for Aston Villa in their opening fixtures in his other appearances.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the Index will become a reliable source for settling disputes about who the best players are. I imagine this is something I shall come back to as the season progresses.

Until then, if David De Gea is looking for the confidence and protection Sir Alex Ferguson says he needs, he could do a lot worse than keeping his eye on the Premier League’s official player ratings.