Over the past 24 hours, there have been a barrage of rumors and reports that Chelsea were about to recall youngster Nathan Ake from his loan spell at Bournemouth. As it turns out, those reports were entirely true: the Blues have now confirmed that the 21-year-old is returning to Stamford Bridge.
.@NathanAke has been recalled from his loan spell at Bournemouth... https://t.co/wk1vQ8443d
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 8, 2017
Aké arrived at Bournemouth in the summer transfer window, initially struggling to break into the preferred starting eleven of Cherries manager Eddie Howe. But beginning on November 19th against Stoke City, Ake got on a hot streak, starting as a centre back in all of their subsequent Premier League encounters, missing only their match-up against Chelsea due to rules preventing him from facing his parent club.
He scored his first goal for Bournemouth in that first start against Stoke, adding two more against Liverpool and Southampton, the former being the winner in a 4-3 clash. The Dutch youngster returns to Chelsea with 10 starts and 2 substitute appearances for Bournemouth across league and cup matches, and will be hoping to make a good impression on Antonio Conte in this last half of the season. This move also may explain why the manager was so insistent that the Blues would not be buying another central defender in the January transfer window.