In July, Chelsea signed Jesse Derry to a new long-term deal at Stamford Bridge, keeping the winger at the club until 2032.
However, the 19-year-old talent’s plan was always to send him out on loan this season. With Portuguese club Sporting CP having a strong reputation for developing talent, Chelsea thought they had found the perfect temporary home for the youngster.
Sporting haven’t proved that for Derry so far. At the time of writing, Derry have one start to their name – in the Allianz Cup last week – this season. After completing 73 minutes against Maritimo, Derry was an unused substitute in the following two matches against Casa Pia AC and Shakhtar Donetsk.
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The latter of the two was played at Stamford Bridge. Shakhtar have agreed a deal with Chelsea to let them use their west London home for Champions League matches this season. The champion of Ukraine has not played in his hometown Donbass Arena since 2014.
This season, due to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, they have chosen London as their temporary home for European competitions, despite the English capital being almost 2,000km away from their base in Kiev.
It would be a surreal moment for Derry to return to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night and see some familiar faces working around the stadium, but the Cobham graduate spent the entire 90 minutes on the bench as his side secured a crucial 1-0 win over Shakhtar.
“Sporting” collected three points after parting ways with head coach Rui Borges not long ago. Paulo Fonseca has left Lyon and is expected to replace Borges at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in due course.
Derry will be hoping to make a strong first impression on the highly-rated Fonseca to log more first-team minutes. Chelsea will also hope the Blues are keeping a close eye on how the teenage winger develops during his time in Portugal before he returns to Cobham in the summer.
After signing a new contract with Chelsea in the summer, Derry said: “To commit my future to a club as big as Chelsea is obviously a dream come true.
“You don’t think about it at all, but when it comes, it’s the best feeling ever. Now I’m just really excited for the future.
“The club has a big project. Everyone wants to get back to winning ways and I would like to be a part of that in the future.
“Having had a little taste of first-team football, I couldn’t think of anywhere else for my future. So it was a no-brainer.”
Derry made three first-team appearances for the Blues last season. Liam Rosenior gave the young talent his big debut in February, coming on in the final stages of Derry’s 4-0 FA Cup win away to Hull City, before making another cameo appearance in the win over Wrexham in the next round of the competition.
The Chelsea winger was also handed his Premier League debut by interim boss Calum McFarlane in May, but was withdrawn following the Derry clash. Derry was rushed to hospital straight from Stamford Bridge with a head injury, but luckily it wasn’t too serious and he was named on the Chelsea bench a few weeks later.