Hector joins Chelsea legions out on loan

CHELSEA closed a strange summer of trading by signing centre half Michael Hector for £4million and loaning him straight back to Reading. Hector’s transfer came a few hours after confirmation that Senegal international Papy Djilobodji (below) had completed a £2.7m move from Nantes. Having started the summer in clear-headed pursuit of John Stones, Chelsea ended the transfer window in a fog of confusion around their recruitment strategy. Hector is a 23-year-old Jamaica international, born in East Ham and loaned to 11 clubs by Reading before establishing a place in their first team. Crystal Palace were trying to buy him when Chelsea moved in with a fiveyear deal yesterday but the signing jars with their usual profiles. The Barclays Premier League champions are committed to investing heavily in youth but usually at a teenage level and already own several promising central defenders. They include Tomas Kalas, Nathaniel Chalobah, Kenneth Omeruo and Andreas Christensen, who are all on loan, and Hector’s immediate return to Reading took the number of players farmed out to 32. Chelsea also have a buy-back option on Jeffrey Bruma who has matured at PSV Eindhoven. Djilobodji had been trying to force a move to Celta Vigo, having been rejected by several English clubs, when Chelsea swept in. In France, his transfer was greeted with astonishment only eclipsed by the figures involved in Manchester United’s swoop for Anthony Martial of Monaco. Djilobodji is a stop-gap to provide cover for John Terry, Gary Cahill and Kurt Zouma, while a future attack on Everton for Stones is plotted.