Since he arrived at Stamford Bridge in 2007 from Lens, Gael Kakuta has been in the headlines but unfortunately not for the reasons we hoped for on most occasions.
The 21-year-old was the centre of a tapping up scandal which saw him receive a lengthy ban and Chelsea would have been banned for signing players in two transfer windows back in 2009, but the club proved that he did not have a valid contract with Lens that, so it couldn’t possibly have been breached and the sanctions were lifted. Not the best way to get everyone to hear your name and the situation put a lot of pressure on young shoulders.
He has made a few first team appearances since, most notably in the Champions League against APOEL, when he became the youngest player to represent Chelsea in the competition and was the only bright note during a 2-2 draw for Carlo Ancelotti’s Blues. Since then he made a few appearances for us in the league and league cup, but his next big moment came in the Champions League again, this time against Marseille in 2010 when he set John Terry up for a goal in the seventh minute.
As it happens, he has now declared his desire to leave Stamford Bridge and has highlighted Marseille as his preferred destination as he’s not been able to hold down a place in our first team squad and is probably sick of going out on loan.
The youngster told French publication L’Equipe:
“My decision is final. This is an important time in my career. It’s better for me to leave the club and find one where I could play more matches. I need to play.”
Kakuta would prefer Marseille but is open to offers from a number of French clubs, he just wants to play first team football:
“Marseille is a club that I like. In France, Marseille, Lyon and Lille are the three clubs I like the most. Nothing is certain yet. First Marseille must first sell and then negotiate a reasonable salary.”
Kakuta had two unsuccessful loan spells at Fulham and Bolton, but enjoyed a move to Dijon where he scored five goals and made two assists, it’s just a shame that it won’t prove to be a good building block to kick-start his Chelsea career.
I notice there was a lot of criticism thrown his way for his performances during the pre-season (mostly on Twitter), which was poor but it was bad for almost everyone except Eden Hazard and I never like seeing such vitriol aimed towards a young player for a few mistakes. Although it is probably time for him to go as I don’t believe he’s a part of Roberto Di Matteo’s plans but it wouldn’t be without heavy heart, from my point of view, as I believe he’s a talented player and will make it somewhere…just not here.
Source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1133663?&cc=5739
