Jeffrey Bruma will not be playing at Hamburg next season

Remember Jeffrey Bruma? Before the emergence of the three Belgians, the Dutch defender was one of Chelsea's hottest prospects, long earmarked as a potential John Terry replacement in the backline - but he's spent the last two years on loan to Hamburg in the Bundesliga, improving but not quite reaching the unrealistic expectations that were heaped upon him.

Anyway, it looks like he might be returning to London this summer. From the man himself...

"(Hamburg general manager) Frank Arnesen told me that the club will not be buying me, and I will not be staying on at HSV," Bruma told Hamburger Morgenpost.

"Now I am looking forward to a return to London and to Chelsea."

Source - Sky Sports

You'll note that Bruma doesn't specifically say he'll be playing for Chelsea next season - just that he will not be staying on at Hamburg. While opinion will probably be divided over his value to the squad - personally, I think he could be a useful piece of squad depth, and with Chelsea presumably looking to reduce their average age and wage, replacing, say, Paulo Ferreira with Bruma isn't the worst idea - the person whose opinion will ultimately be decisive in this matter is Chelsea's new manager.

(Incredibly, Bruma signed for Chelsea when Jose Mourinho was in just his second year at the club. How time flies.)

Without knowing who that is, it's difficult to make a judgement on where Bruma ends up next year. He's got one year left on his contract, complicating matters. At this point in his career, Chelsea will be looking to either offload to him a new club or try and mould him into the first team fold. A sale rather than loan looks likely, but he'll probably get a chance to impress in pre-season before any final decision is made.