Official: Peterborough United sign Lucas Bergström on loan from Chelsea

The Loan Army has been shrinking a bit in recent years, both by design and by circumstance, but it’s likely to remain an important part of player development at the club, especially without any prospect of introducing “B Teams” into the football pyramid. (And the highest age level for which we can provide any sort of competition has now been officially reduced to U21 instead of U23 as well.)

In any case, the first new* loanee of the summer is 19-year-old goalkeeper Lucas Bergström, who’s joined League One (third tier) outfit Peterborough United on loan for the season. This is Bergström’s first loan since joining Chelsea in 2019 from his native Finland.

*(Tiémoué Bakayoko is set for a second season on loan at AC Milan, unless they cancel it in the next few weeks; and Bryan Fiabema is on loan at Roseborg through the end of their season in November.)

Bergström will be competing with fellow new arrival and loanee Harvey Cartwright for the starting job with The Posh. Cartwright has worked with manager Grant McCann before at Hull City, which might put Bergström at a disadvantage to start, but hopefully he will be able to overcome that and get plenty of minutes this season.

“Harvey is a young goalkeeper with huge potential, who under the stewardship of Barry Richardson (Hull City goalkeeper coach) has been improving year on year. He is commanding, good at coming for crosses, good in one v one situations and very brave, but most importantly he has great temperament and character.”

“Lucas is very highly-rated at Chelsea. He is commanding, a very good shot-stopper and extremely aggressive from crosses and good with his feet.”

-Grant McCann; source: ITV

Bergström’s departure leaves a spot open on the U21s for others to step up or step in.