November 29th 2023.
Chelsea have decided to recall Andrey Santos from his season-long loan at Nottingham Forest when the January transfer window opens. The Brazilian youngster had signed on expecting regular first-team football, however, he has only made one substitute appearance in the Premier League. Forest late swooped for Ibrahima Sangare and Nicolas Dominguez, pushing Santos down the midfield pecking order.
The Athletic reports that Chelsea will make use of a break clause inserted in his loan move, with the 19-year-old set to return to Stamford Bridge come January. Forest are happy to let him go, given his lack of game time - and the financial penalty they have to pay each time he doesn't play.
Chelsea now have to decide what to do with Santos in the second half of the season. As they already have seven international loans - which is the maximum allowed by UEFA rules - they would need to cancel one in order to find a new, European club for Santos. It is difficult to see who they would recall, however, as all the players on loan are getting regular games.
Strasbourg, who are owned by the same group as Chelsea, have expressed interest in taking Santos on loan. It is possible that Santos could go to a domestic club, but his struggles at Forest suggest Chelsea may need to look at a Championship club as a destination. They could even keep him at Cobham, as he had impressed Mauricio Pochettino in pre-season and earned a spot on the bench for their opening Premier League match.
Speaking at the start of last month about Santos' lack of game time, Forest boss Steve Cooper said: ‘He’s been good. He’s obviously a really good young player. I had a really good chat with Chelsea [about him] this week. I didn’t realise some stuff had been written about him. There’s a lot of new players here and we’re really trying to get the balance right in integrating all the players at the right time, while trying to perform as best we can in every single game to get the results we want. That’s a real process. With young players, sometimes it can take longer than others to settle in. I’m not saying he’s not, it’s just circumstantial at the moment in some of the games.’
It seems that Chelsea have a tough decision ahead of them as to what to do with Santos in the second half of the season. He is set to return to Stamford Bridge in January, and it will be interesting to see where he ends up and how he will fare.
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