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Matt Miazga sent on season-long loan to Vitesse Arnhem

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Not England. Not Spain. Not Germany. Not Belgium.

Matt Miazga’s immediate future lies in the Netherlands.

After weeks of rumors linking him to numerous clubs throughout Europe, Miazga was loaned from Chelsea to Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem on Wednesday. The deal runs through the end of the 2016-17 campaign, meaning the 21-year-old centerback will spend his first full season abroad in the Eredivisie.

Miazga, who has made two official appearances for the Blues since joining them in January, was reportedly targeted by numerous European teams this offseason. The most recent side rumored to be interested in the U.S. Men’s National Team defender was La Liga side Espanyol, which allegedly could not get a deal done before the summer transfer window shut.

As a result, Miazga will be playing for the club that is currently in fifth place in the Netherlands’ top division. Vitesse Arnhem has picked up seven points from four games so far, and its next game, and Miazga’s first chance to make his debut, will come on Sept. 11 on the road against Ajax.

Other clubs that were reportedly in pursuit of Miazga this summer were Anderlecht, Sunderland, and Eintracht Frankfurt.

What do you think of Miazga’s loan move to Vitesse Arnhem? Do you see him earning significant playing time? Wishing he would have gone elsehwere?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. While I wished Miazga would’ve stayed in England, The Dutch League is good. In 2014 The Netherlands made it to third place with a back line of domestic players. Sure the players coming out of it now aren’t big stars like 10-15 years ago but in terms of a WC final in 2010 and semifinal to third in 2014, it think it’s good enough.

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  2. Hope it translates to minutes. It’s not exactly the best league for developing defenders, but it’s just a loan so the only thing that matters is that he plays. I have to think this means he’s out of Chelsea’s plans as they don’t really do the long-run route with players.

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  3. It’s a good move and this is why.

    The owner of Vitesse-Arnhem is a Russian Oligarch, like Abramovich, they even know each other and you could call them friends. I think despite all the interest from other clubs, Miazga was destined for Vitesse, as the owners wanted it that way.

    The coach of Vitesse is Dutch Suriname born Henk Frazer who was a centerback during his playing career. Miazga is a centerback. Get it! He will get good instruction. The Dutch League is one of the finest “learning leagues” in Europe. If you look at all the Americans who did well there from John O’Brien, Ernie Stewart, Jozy Altidor, DaMarcus Beasley all had career years in the Dutch League, some stayed, some moved on. The Dutch League, is a selling league. If they see potential, they will buy Miazga, if Chelsea wants to sell, and make a good amount on the resale.

    If they don’t, Miazga will still get good minutes and learn, which is what he needs to advance his career.

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    • And Michael Bradley started out abroad in Holland and had a great year, I believe, his second year there. That led to his move to the Bundesliga. Still, I think Miazga would have been better off at Sunderland. Hope you are right and I am wrong.

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      • Hard to tell what’s real and what speculation in the transfer window. The Sunderland offer could have merely floated by either side to pressure other clubs into making better offers.

    • Vitesse has three Chelsea loanees including Matt this season, had five last year and three the year before, and four the year before that. Patrick Van Anholt, who many of us may be familiar with as the Sunderland LB, has had the most success (if you consider playing LB at Sunderland success).

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      • Its actually more success because Van Anholt was actually signed by Sunderland to a four year deal.

        Compared to expectations a lot of people here have for Miazga I would say most would consider making a permanent move to Sunderland not a great success.

    • i don’t think it’s a *bad* move necessarily, but vitesse is often used as a holding pen for chelsea players who don’t have better options. i think that, due to the lateness of the move, it’s likely the case with miazga.

      as you said, the owners are friends, and the expectation is that vitesse will be more invested than another random club while chelsea keeps paying a large part of the salaries. there have actually been calls for investigations into the relationship by other eredivisie clubs, especially if vitesse and chelsea end up in the same tournaments (not a problem this year, haha).

      so while i think that the eredivisie could be a good spot for miazga, it’s disappointing in a way.

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      • okay, after reading this, that was too negative.

        you could just as easily propose that chelsea was hanging on to miazga for good reasons while turning down offers, and the easiest way to move him right before the window closed was to send him to their familiar partners at vitesse.

        i guess my larger (and better) point was that i don’t think vitesse was really pursuing miazga, and i’d rather he went to a club who had a specific plan for him.

      • I think it all comes down to the “loan” contract. Does it have a buy clause? If it does, how much would it be? The contract will tell you volumes about the what Chelsea expects to do with Miazga.

        Because he is young and inexperience, I do not think Chelsea will sell him right away,if at all. But they will look to at least one loan before evaluating him. Next summer, Conte will look at his backline and see if there is a fit (assuming Miazga has a good season) and go from there. Of more importance to Miazga future with Chelsea is his playing time with Vitesse and Klinsmann calling him up for WCQ games. Doing well in those games, a regular starting spot at Vitesse and USMNT will go a long way in Chelsea evaluation.

        He is lucky, the Eredivisie does not have the big money TV contracts the EPL has, the cannot “warehouse” players on development squads, reserves or U23 teams. They play who they have, and while they rotate players, Miazga should have no trouble getting a lot of minutes should he stay healthy. In the EPL, he will suffer from squad rotations and competition from at least 4 other player for each position on the field, even in the lower ranked teams.

        The fact is, Chelsea held onto him to the very last second, until they had cover, he was part of their plans going forward, although they knew he needed minutes.

        All in all, I think its a great move for his career.

      • Bottlecaps: I agree with a lot of your points there. However, the bottom line is Chelsea young players who get loaned seldom make it with Chelsea. I don’t know maybe its the same with all bigger clubs, and Chelsea’s CBs are still primarily older so who knows.

        As I looked at the Chelsea loaned out list from the last few years its pretty bleak for a player wanting to stay with Chelsea. I looked through Chelsea’s loan outs in 2012-13 and 13-14, so those players had a chance to develop and shine and yes you have Courtois and Victor Moses who were the only two out of many that ever even played for Chelsea again and Kevin DeBruyne and Rom Lukaku that really did much of anything anywhere else. The vast majority are in mid level leagues or in lower divisions. Going back two more years you find Daniel Sturridge. This is a long way to say the odds are stacked against Matt at this point at Chelsea, but he’s got a chance and that’s all an athlete can ask for is a chance.

  4. Not disappointed in Miazga’s move, reports all week were saying he wanted to be sure to get plenty of minutes wherever he wen’t which wasn’t assured in EPL. However, am I the only one disappointed that no other American moved today? Zelalem, Ariyibi, even had some hope for Danny Williams or that Brooks injury report was covering for big transfer. Obviously, January is a bigger time for MLSers because no one wants to see players go just before playoffs, but hoped we’d see some guys improve their position.

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  5. Obviously not of the level of Spain, Germany, France or England but Matt will play week in and week out in a league that prides itself on developing players technically and tactically. I couldn’t be happier about this move because of the number of games he will get but on the flip side there is a chance he’ll never play for Chelsea again, which may not be the worst thing either considering the manager is not s big supporter of American players or it’s league

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  6. This and all further articles should be entitled, “Miazga gets bought by Chelsea and it goes exactly as expected.”

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