Loans and transfers...

Two bargain transfers this weekend have got me thinking about the loan system and whether it really works.

21-year-old Alfred Duncan joining Sampdoria from Inter Milan on a 2-year loan. Deals like this are very odd to me, because exactly what interest (other than financial) do Inter retain in a player who they've pretty much abandoned for the next two years? There's talk that Sampdoria have the option to buy along the way. I think the player is a raw talent with the sort of dynamic ability that reminds me a little of West Ham's Mo Diame. For the cost of a standard loan fee, and with the option to make the move permanent, I think it's a brilliant move for Sampdoria. It's hard to see a logical downside with this sort of deal.

Another 21 year old on the move that may prove a bargain is George Thorne's move to Derby from West Brom. Operating as the anchor man in midfield, Thorne seemed absolutely spotless last season on loan at Derby, and it just leaves me wondering about the loan system generally, and whether it ever suits the loaning club. What do West Brom want from loaning out the player if they're prepared to let him go after such a great loan spell? - his passing and performance stats over his 10 or so games are among the best in the championship last season.

I think the idea of a loan as being the chance for a club to give their young players playing experience is completely outdated. If anything, modern thinking seems to suggest that youths spend too much time on competitive football, and too little on the training pitch. And if clubs genuinely want a stake in developing their youngsters, they should make sure its their own coaches giving the guidance. No, the modern loan seems to me to happen to players that the bigger clubs just don't know what to do with - it's an admittance of defeat, rather than anything more positive I think.

It's happened at a much bigger scale at Chelsea in recent years. I think it's right they had well over 20 players on loan around Europe last season, including a bunch who would be in the first team at most clubs in Europe (Lukaku, Courtois, De Bruyne, Bertrand, Zouma etc). And it seems the same problem exists at that level - almost as soon as they're pushed out on loan, their actual prospects of ever playing for the first team are all but gone. Because if they genuinely had a shot they would never have been loaned in the first place. The absurdity of Chelsea's struggle for goals while one of the Premiership's star strikers (Lukaku) was on loan at Everton - what better evidence is there that 'something' isn't working.

I suppose the big clubs' excuse is that they are looking for players of the quality to take them forward, and that means a lot of misfires along the way. They don't want a Lukaku, they want a Drogba. They don't want a De Bruyne, they want a Messi. But it does mean that a huge bunch of players are meandering in their careers at bigger clubs that really don't know quite what to do with them. And that means rich pickings for absolutely everyone else.