Official: Spezia sign Ethan Ampadu on loan from Chelsea

Ethan Ampadu is heading back to Italy for a second successive season, this time joining Spezia on loan after a year spent at Venezia.

Spezia are reportedly paying €1.5m in terms of a loan fee, but contrary to those initial reports, will not have any sort of future consideration in the deal like a €15m buy-option, which sounded pretty optimistic anyway.

Ampadu, who has two years left on his Chelsea contract, saw consistent involvement with the first-team in preseason and remained with the group even after the season began, even making the bench in our last three games. That did raise the possibility of him staying, but it looks like we were just keeping him around as a backup in case the Wesley Fofana deal fell through.

This is Ampadu’s third consecutive season out on loan, after RB Leipzig, Sheffield Wednesday, and Venezia. He suffered relegation with each of the last two; hopefully his time at Spezia will be a bit more successful, and not just in terms of earning regular minutes.

Good luck, Ethan! Do us proud.