5 Chelsea players who should move in the January transfer window
Since being taken over by Roman Abramovich in 2003, Chelsea Football Club has invested heavily in infrastructure and personnel. The club has built a strong squad with the Russian oligarch's financial backing and has also developed an extremely successful youth academy that has overseen the development of several highly talented young players.
Unfortunately, a large majority of these players have never played for the Chelsea first-team and have instead been sent out on loan every few months to a new location. Andreas Christensen is the only youth academy player to have successfully transitioned into a regular first-team player in the past decade.
Chelsea currently have so many players out on loan that if their entire first-team squad were to be debilitated for a week by chickenpox, they could recall a 23-man squad and still have players who would be left out.
For many of these players, a spot in Chelsea's squad has become almost inconceivable and their only chance of playing regular football is to look for pastures new.
That being said, a number of older players should also consider moving away from Stamford Bridge in search of more game time. The following is a list of 5 players who need to engineer a move out of Chelsea before it's too late.
#5 Kurt Zouma
For a season or two after he moved to London, it seemed like Kurt Zouma was destined to fill the vacancy that John Terry would leave behind upon retiring. The smiling French centre-back quickly endeared himself to Chelsea supporters by putting in some stellar performances during Chelsea's title-winning 2014/15 season.
Zouma played particularly well in matches against Manchester City and Manchester United, where he contained the likes of Sergio Aguero and Marouane Fellaini quite effectively.
Chelsea's next season was significantly worse and the Blues seemed to be in free-fall at one point, almost entering the relegation zone in November. However, Kurt Zouma was one of a handful of Chelsea players whose performances were not terrible, and the defender managed to work his way into the first-team.
The youngster played regularly for a while until an ACL injury sidelined him for the better part of nine months.
Since the injury, Zouma has struggled to make his way back into the Chelsea first-team and he is currently on loan at Stoke City. The defender has shown great maturity in his performances for Stoke and has proved that he hasn't lost a yard of pace after the injury.
In spite of his positive recovery from a potentially career-ending injury, the development of Andreas Christensen has made Zouma's chances of becoming a regular starter even less likely. The defender will need to assess his options in the imminent future and try to work out what his options are in January.