A quick review of how the loanees have fared this season. A bit of a mixed bag as usual.
Successful loans
Harry Tyrer - Chesterfield (National League - tier 5). Contract expires June 2026.
First choice keeper for the whole season in an attacking side that walked the title. Seems to have been very popular with the fans who would like him to sign up for another year. However, he is now 22 and over 6 foot 4 so he could be ready to step up a couple of levels for another club.
Zan-Luk Leban – Farsley Celtic (National League North – tier 6). Contract expires June 2025.
He also played the full year in goal, at one level lower and in a team that only just avoided relegation. Despite this, he had excellent stats – 15 clean sheets and only just over a goal a game conceded. He was also a big fan favourite. He is a year younger than HarryTyrer so it could be worth giving him a contract extension and another loan.
Stanley Mills - Oxford United (League 1). Contract expires June 2025.
This loan was going well until he suffered a serious knee ligament injury in January. It seemed he was being handled really sensibly by the Oxford management - he started a number of games and was given plenty of minutes when coming on as a sub, scoring once and providing 6 assists. Oxford were top 6 all season and were eventually promoted via the play offs. Still only 20, a hard working winger with a lot of pace, he could offer a good option on the right for a Dyche side.
Middling loans
Reece Welch started a lot of matches for relegated Forest Green at the start of the season but seemed to fall out of favour and had his loan cancelled in January. Eli Campbell had a similar experience when he went to Fleetwood in February – started plenty of games after he joined but was stuck on the bench by the end as Fleetwod (unsuccessfully) battled relegation. Good experience for young defenders but they haven't really shown they have what it takes to play at the highest level. Sean MacAllister scored a couple of goals and got an assist for Invereness CT in the 10 games he played since moving there in January but his progress was derailed by a couple of injuries. Caley were relegated to the 3rd tier in the plays offs.
Failed loans
The rest of the loans could not not really be classed as very successful. Lewis Warrington hardly played at all for Plymouth and was returned to us in January. At least it was good to see him finally making his first team debut last week. There is a player in there somewhere maybe at Championship level. Presumably the aim of loaning out Neal Maupay and Mason Holgate was for them for perform well enough to attract buyers at the end of the season (I doubt that we received any loan fees for them and I wonder if we also had to contribute to their wages). Maupay did get a few goals and assists initially for Brentford but once Mbuemo and Toney came back he didn't feature much and Brentford have indicated that they are not going to take up their option to buy him. He also seems to have burnt his bridges with recent criticism of Everton. Mason Holgate was on the bench mostly for a decent Southampton side near the top of the Championship. He started most matches after moving to Sheffield United but was part of the worst defence in Premier League history.
It will be interesting to see who gets loaned out next term. Ideally, players like Chermiti and Patterson could benefit from playing a full season on loan but with our likely limited squad numbers this could be difficult. From the youth team, maybe Charlie Whittaker and Francis Okoronkwo could be candidates for a spell on loan?
