Chelsea youngsters Marc Guehi and Tariq Uwakwe set to go out on loans

While most of the media pages about Chelsea have been dominated by rumors about big-name stars like Jadon Sancho, Wilfried Zaha, Moussa Dembele, Olivier Giroud, Nathan Ake etc., there are obviously going to be changes at the Development Squad and Loan Army levels as well.

Two such Chelsea youngsters, whose representatives have been working hard behind the scenes, are Marc Guehi and Tariq Uwakwe.

Guehi, one of the older players in the Development Squad and with a couple first-team appearances to his name in the Carabao Cup, is set to join Swansea City on loan. While the initial details mentioned a 6-month loan, it now looks like Guehi will be staying in Wales for a good 18 months. A longer loan has proven to be more beneficial in a lot of cases, as it gives a player ample time to adapt to a particular environment.

This will be 19-year old Guehi’s first-ever loan, and Chelsea will be undoubtedly hoping that the highly-rated youngster quickly kicks on. Guehi is not extremely tall or physical, but he’s one of the best ball-playing centre backs the academy has produced and there is a good chance that he will someday add more appearances in a Chelsea shirt to his name in the future.

Tariq Uwakwe on the other hand, is in even greater need of a first-ever loan at age 20. There are rumors that he will join Derby County for a short 6-month stint, which should get the young midfielder going in the world of senior football. Chelsea have had a good relationship with Derby County in the last couple years, so hopefully Uwakwe can follow in the footsteps of Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori to continue fostering that.

Uwakwe hasn’t made his senior-team debut yet, but he is highly rated by Chelsea and he has trained with the senior players a couple of times, both this season and the last. There was interest from West Brom in the summer who wanted to take the youngster on loan with an option-to-buy, but Chelsea rejected that offer.

Good luck to both!