Andrey Santos, Diego Moreira, David Datro Fofana and Cesare Casadei have had their loans cut short.
Of these four players, only the Italian had a successful loan, making 24 appearances for Leicester. He was brought back to the Bridge to fight for a place in the first team.
The other three's experiences away on loan ranged from disappointing to disastrous. Datro Fofana scored mighty two goals in 12 appearances for Union Berlin, Moreira failed to register any goal contributions in just nine games with Lyon and Santos played just two matches for Forest.
But poor loans haven't always been the case.
Mason Mount's two loans, first with Vitesse and then with Derby, made him ready for first-team football with Chelsea. Conor Gallagher spent a season on loan with Palace, earned an England call-up and firmly established himself as one of the best midfielders in the league.
Tammy Abraham spent the 2018/19 season with Aston Villa in the Championship, netting 25 goals in 37 league appearances and showing that he's a Premier League-level player.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek struggled with injuries and couldn't break into Chelsea's first-team squad, so he left the club for Fulham in 2020. He put his career back on track during his season at Craven Cottage.
Fikayo Tomori, who was a rotation player at best at the Bridge, impressed on a 2021 loan to AC Milan, leading the Italian club to spend £25m on the defender. Ethan Ampadu went on three successive – and successful – loans between 2020 and 2023, earning a £7m move to Leeds last summer.
So Chelsea have shown in the past they can make good decisions over loan destinations for their youngsters. Unfortunately, this season it doesn't appear to be the case so far.
