Chelsea
technical director Michael Emenalo has defended the Premier League
champions' loan policy which saw more than 30 players leave Stamford Bridge
on a temporary basis this summer.
The Blues allowed Juan Cuadrado - bought from Fiorentina for £23.3million in
January - and Mohamed Salah to leave for Juventus and Roma respectively,
while Victor Moses joined West Ham for the rest of the season after signing
a new four-year contract with the club.
Midfielders Nathaniel Chalobah - on loan at Napoli - and Marco van Ginkel at
Stoke are among the other senior players now operating elsewhere.
The remaining players out on loan are mostly members of Chelsea's youth
academy and U21 squad. Though Chelsea are not in breach of any rules, they
have been accused of unfairly stockpiling players.
Emenalo, however, insists the loan system has been put in place precisely to
promote the development of talent.
"We have the difficult job - one we happily accept because we are a big club
- of trying to balance being successful with making sure we have the right
players at the right time," he told Chelsea TV.
"Sometimes we know there are players whose development is not finished, just
like Victor (Moses), who we want to keep with our squad but who maybe needs
to play more football to get to the level we think he can get to, because he
is very, very talented."
The Nigerian admitted Cuadrado had been allowed to join Juventus after
suffering a crisis of confidence when he arrived at the club in January.
At the same time, though, Egypt international Salah was sent to Fiorentina,
for whom he would score nine goals, reinforcing Emenalo's faith in Chelsea's
loan policy.
"Sometimes the timing is not right for them," he said.
"For example, we got (Juan) Cuadrado straight after a very difficult game at
Spurs and we had to change our strategy for the rest of the season. That
didn't suit the reason for which we had already gone to get him.
"So we felt it would be better for him to go and rediscover his confidence
and he hasn't just gone to any other team... he's gone to Juventus.
"These players go to top clubs and when they get there, they prove we don't
recruit bad players, just like Salah did last season."
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