Jacob Mellis set to head to Barnsley for the remainder of the season

Jacob Mellis, who made his first team debut with Chelsea this November, is set to head out on loan for the remainder of the season. Championship side Barnsley are set to take Mellis on for the remainder of the season. This news comes on the heels of this morning's announcement that he has extended his contract with Chelsea until 2013. It's nice that Mellis will be seeing regular starts for the rest of the year.

For those of you unfamiliar, Mellis is a 20 year old midfielder who joined the club in 2007. He was previously at Sheffield United, and cost the club about 1 million pounds at the time of the purchase. When 16 year olds have a price tag that high, they generally have very high expectations. To date, Mellis has yet to show that he was worth the money paid for him, but at only 20 years old there is certainly still hope he develops into a first team player. He's a regular on the England U19 squad, and has reportedly greatly improved his standing with the national team over the last season. I had previously thought he may be an option for the bench this weekend, but it looks as if that opportunity will go to someone else now. Good luck to Jacob, and I hope to see more improvement this summer when he returns.