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It only took one whole month, but Chelsea have finally confirmed the sale of once highly promising midfielder Ulises Davila. Better late than never, I suppose.
Chelsea also confirm Bamford & Atsu are back at Cobham & Davila has officially signed for Santos Laguna https://t.co/NofHS87zBx
— Liam Twomey (@liam_twomey) January 4, 2016
We had already learned of Davila's return to his home country of Mexico at the start of last month, as Santos Laguna had announced that the former CD Guadalajara and Mexico U20 standout would be joining them for preseason training and for the upcoming 2016 Clausura season.
Davila's Chelsea adventure comes to an end after 4.5 years, 5 loans, and 0 games actually played for Chelsea. Good luck to him in the rest of his career.
Meanwhile...
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Somebody who seems to be heading down a very similar path as Davila is young Brazilian wing-back Wallace. The 21-year-old has been on Chelsea's books since December 2012 but outside of a few pre-season minutes, has spent his time out on loan, and, unfortunately, has spent most of that loan time just sitting on benches. While he did make a bit of an impact at Vitesse, his stints in the Serie A at Internazionale in 2013-14 and Carpi in the first half of this season have been unmitigated failures. He will now try his luck back in his home country as well.
Chelsea's Wallace in Brazil to join Grêmio on a 18-month loan deal. #CFC will pay a % of his wages. CFC & Grêmio to have a partnership deal.
— Paulo Freitas (@Cynegeticus) January 5, 2016
Wallace will have one more year left on his Chelsea contract at the end of this 18-month loan, but perhaps the more interesting bit in this arrangement is the "partnership deal" between Grêmio and Chelsea. Obviously it's not exactly clear what all that will entail, nor will that ever be exactly spelled out for us publicly, I'm sure, but it's easy to envision it as some sort of pipeline into the seemingly never-ending talent pool of young Brazilian footballers.
In either case, good luck to Wallace, good luck to Davila, and good luck to all the no-hopers and long-shots in the Chelsea loan system who have just the tiniest of tiny chances of ever making it at the parent club, but who are probably still getting something worthwhile out of the deal. (Otherwise why would they ever sign up in the first place?)