Derby County have signed young Chelsea midfielder Joe Haigh on six month loan deal. He'll link up with the U-21's squad. What can the young man bring to The Rams? Could he break into the first team during his spell. We spoke with Paree at The Chelsea Spot to find all about the player.
Derby have signed midfielder Joe Haigh to the U21's. What do you make of it?
At first when I heard about it, I thought it was a really good move for him. Chelsea’s signing of Omari Hutchinson into the development squad team probably hindered Joe’s chances of getting regular minutes this season so a move away made sense.
Hearing he’s joining up with the U21s at first is slightly disappointing if I’m totally honest, but it does make sense and I’m sure he’ll be pushing to join that first team environment very soon. He’s certainly got the ability.
How did he do perform last season for Chelsea’s u21 side?
It’s been difficult for Joe in the last few years at Chelsea in terms of injuries and just trying to get minutes in general. There is no doubt though that when he did feature, you could see the talent and he provided some really clutch goals and assists last season. He was quite impressive in the pre-season games I saw around a month ago too.
The last Chelsea midfielder Derby had on loan turned out to be pretty talented. Is Joe Haigh highly regarded at the club? Is he one of the top prospects? Do they see him as a future first teamer?
Without sounding too harsh I don’t think he’s got too much of a future as a first teamer at Chelsea, but that’s not due to a lack of talent and I could certainly be wrong. From experience of watching the academy for multiple years, you pretty much have to be involved with the first team around the age of 18 at least for a few sessions to be seen as a top prospect at the club and with the chance of making it in the future.
But, with our new owner Todd Boehly, things can very much change and we have seen a complete shift towards using the academy. He has been adamant on not selling some of the brightest academy products and who knows, if Joe has a good season in the League One and follows it up with Championship success afterwards, he will have every right to try and push into the Chelsea squad.
What are his strengths? His weaknesses?
His strength is certainly his dribbling ability. He’s such an agile player, and me and my friends who watch the academy on a regular basis compared him a couple years ago to someone like Joe Cole or Christian Pulisic. He’s a pretty clinical finisher and loves to work off the ball too.
It’s hard to pick out proper weaknesses but I think an easy one is definitely his size. When he’s on the top of his game this is never an issue because he uses it to skip past players and get through tight spaces, but I’d be interested to see if it becomes a problem in League One. He also had the tendency, like a lot of players his age, to drift out of games a bit so one big thing I wanted to see this season was for him to take much more responsibility and do the magic with the ball as much as possible. Hopefully he can do that with you guys.
He has a reputation as a creative midfielder but he can also play on the wings. What’s his best position? What other elements to his game are there?
Yeah, it’s difficult to nail down his best position but he’s probably going to be doing his best work in a midfield three as an attacking midfielder or on the wings. He’s played as a number eight a few times before for Chelsea and that’s worked too. Without sounding too arrogant, a lot of the Cobham products have played in every single position coming up the ranks so chuck him anywhere and I’m sure he’d still be doing his best!
What would be considered a successful loan spell for Joe Haigh and for Chelsea?
It’s a six month loan deal, which is quite interesting. It’s quite difficult for me to say, actually. As I said before, my initial reaction was that I can’t wait to see him playing first team football and that would’ve certainly been a successful loan spell, but him starting with the 21s has changed my mind a little.
I think a good loan spell for Joe would be him pushing into the first team squad in the next two months, then extending the loan to the full season and finally playing League One football by December/January. Chelsea and Joe would surely be buzzing with that.
League One is a tough division and it’s a lot different than Premier League 2 football. Do you think Joe Haigh is well equipped for League One football? Do you think he can be good player for Derby?
It certainly isn’t going to be easy, but I back Joe to be that bright spark you may need when you’re down or for him to lift the crowd up in tough times. Especially with his style of football, he’s going to be on the end of some rough challenges and it’s down to him to keep his head high and keep on going.
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