Maresca already has a huge Amougou upgrade & he’s never played for Chelsea

Chelsea are looking rather light in the midfield department, with Roméo Lavia continuing to suffer from injuries, both Cesare Casadei and Renato Veiga leaving in the January window and multiple other midfielders out on loan.

This has seen Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernández starting almost every game, with many beginning to question their workload, scared of the pair becoming jaded and picking up an injury.

Luckily, on deadline day, Enzo Maresca’s side did manage to make one midfield signing, with Mathis Amougou joining from St Etienne for a fee of around £12.5m.

But this late scramble could’ve been avoided had Chelsea recalled one of their two central midfielders out on loan, both of whom have shown signs of capability in a similar role.

Lesley Ugochukwu is one of them but he’s not the only one. Stay tuned…

How Lesley Ugochukwu is doing at Southampton

Ugochukwu is one of the Chelsea midfielders out on loan this season. Having joined Southampton on a temporary basis in the summer, the 20-year-old has made 18 appearances in all competitions, providing two assists, contributing to three clean sheets and totalling 1,029 minutes played.

Impressively, the French midfielder has been compared to Aurelien Tchouameni’s level of potential, by Liam Twomey from The Athletic, standing at 6 foot 3, covering ground in central areas really well, making high numbers of defensive actions – 3.86 tackles per 90 – and being technically astute on the ball to receive in tight spaces.

Despite having Ugochukwu as one option to bring back from loan, Southampton’s change in manager (Ivan Juric) saw the French midfielder given more minutes, meaning the Blues decided to keep him at Southampton for the remainder of the season in order to aid his development.

But there was another midfield option out on loan who could have returned to have a huge impact at Chelsea.

How Andrey Santos compares to Mathis Amougou

Perhaps the crown jewel of young talents acquired by Chelsea and sent out on loan for multiple seasons, is Brazilian midfielder, Andrey Santos. He’s not played a single minute for the Blues yet, consequently spending the past year at Strasbourg on loan.

Across all competitions, the 20-year-old star has been “immense” in the words of analyst Ben Mattinson. He has made 20 appearances so far this season for the French outfit, scoring eight goals, providing two assists, contributing to four clean sheets and featuring for a total of 1,764 minutes.

When comparing Santos’s underlying numbers with Chelsea’s new midfield signing – interestingly both playing in Ligue 1 this season – you can see how far ahead Santos currently is with his game, being more comfortable on the ball, making more passes, more progressive actions and completing more defensive actions per 90 too.

Santos has been described as a “one-man war machine” by Jacek Kulig in the past, being well known for being an all-action midfielder, who contributes in all phases, can drop deep to link play, protect the backline in defensive transition, get stuck in to win duels, but also arrive in the box and add goals for the team.

Whilst Ugochukwu and Santos would have been more ready to contribute now, Chelsea have clearly taken the route of allowing them to complete their loan cycles, continue their development with consistent minutes, before rejoining the squad next season, when Amougou will likely receive a loan to aid his development in a similar way.