Chelsea's Lucas Piazon blasts club's loan policy
Fulham loanee Lucas Piazon believes his parent club Chelsea's usage of the loan system "makes no sense" as he prepares for his fifth temporary stint away from Stamford Bridge.
Piazon could eventually cost the Blues around £10 million due to various add-ons written into his deal since he joined from Sao Paulo in 2010. Like 37 others on the club's books, though, he'll instead vie for minutes elsewhere.
Related: Chelsea keeps with tradition by loaning out 11 players on deadline day
"I'm tired of moving abroad. One, two, three loans, maybe that's enough," Piazon said, according to The Daily Mail's Matt Barlow. "It's time for me to stay somewhere more than one year. When they know you'll stay whatever happens, people look at you with different eyes.
"If I had the chance to go for more than one season I'd do it."
At 22, Piazon has 86 league appearances to his name, but only 16 minutes in a Chelsea shirt, and he's rather pessimistic about his chances of greatly enhancing his first-team pedigree across SW6.
"It makes no sense to go on loan all the time," Piazon said. "It is not good for any player in my experience - or the experience of the other boys. I don't see it as a positive thing any more. To be in a different place every year is not good for me at 22.
"It's difficult to get a place in the team. They have their own players. You do your best, try to get a place in the squad, minutes on the pitch, score, and create goals. That's all you can do."
As long as Chelsea finds it to be a profitable scheme - the club's made sizable chunks of cash on the sales of Thorgan Hazard and Papy Djilobodji after loan spells - and the loan rules remain the same, the Blues are unlikely to change their approach in the market. Criticism will endure, however, with Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor dubbing Chelsea's methods a "warehousing of players" last year.
Chelsea could hand starts to Marcos Alonso and David Luiz following their deadline-day arrivals in Sunday's trip to Swansea City. Piazon, meanwhile, could make his Fulham bow in Saturday's visit from Birmingham City.