Tomáš Kalas extends Chelsea contract, set for new loan assignment — report

Tomáš Kalas was a surprise addition to Chelsea’s Tour of Asia squad yesterday, as one of the 25 players, many of whom carried badges of honor from previous Loan Army deployments, on the plane to China.

After all, he had just one year left on the three-year contract he signed back in 2015 — making a grand total of zero Chelsea appearances since then, while going on loan to Middlesbrough and Fulham — and it had been assumed that he would be leaving on a permanent transfer. Signed as a 17-year-old, surely, the 24-year-old Kalas’s time had come to fly the coop.

It would appear that we assumed wrong. According to reports back in his native Czech Republic, Kalas has extended his Chelsea contract instead. There’s no word on how long the new deal might be, but if Van Ginkel’s surprising new contract is any indication, it might even be for three years once again.

That said, not even the Czechs think this will be the harbinger of anything other than another loan move, possibly back to Fulham just like Lucas Piazon had done last week. With Rüdiger and Christensen in the fold, Chelsea have an overabundance of defenders in the squad (and a dearth of strikers and possibly midfielders) and while Kalas is certainly good enough for the Championship, he might just fall a little short of the quality required at the top end of the Premier League.

UPDATE: