An England U21 international, Nathaniel Chalobah is a graceful and technically gifted midfielder with a solid understanding of the defensive arts courtesy of his having started his career at centre back. At 6'1 he's fairly tall, although perhaps not as strong as he could be, and is extremely capable at winning the ball in his own half before driving upfield on a rapid counter-attack. While he's been played in midfield for each of his loan clubs to date, his outings in pre-season for Chelsea have all but one been in his original position at centre-back. It will be interesting to see whether Mourinho sees him as more of a ball-playing centre back, a role for which he definitely has the reading of the game but may need to bulk up a little and work on his positioning. His first loan spell at Watford, where his early career was guided under the watchful eye of Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola, was an enormous success and he was an instrumental factor in almost guiding the club to promotion to the Premier League. He signed a new Chelsea contract that summer and Mourinho stated he expected Chalobah to be a part of his Chelsea squad a year later, yet the subsequent loan to Nottingham Forest did not go so well thanks to a number of off-field incidents. He swapped Forest for Middlesbrough in January, where his form solidified and he enjoyed a solid if unspectacular end to the season. He'd be higher up this list were it not for that year of stagnation, and rather than joining Chelsea's squad this year he will instead be going back out on loan again. Burnley are rumoured to be close to securing his signature and it will certainly be interesting to see how he fares in the more challenging environment of Premier League football.
28-year old English writer with a borderline obsessive passion for films, videogames, Chelsea FC, incomprehensible words and indefensible puns. Follow me on Twitter if you like infrequent outbursts of absolute drivel.
