It is on July 2 that the first group of Chelsea players return to Cobham for pre-season. For many, those early training sessions will be solely about building up fitness ahead of the club's tour of the United States. Yet for several others, they provide a vital opportunity to impress Thomas Tuchel.
The Chelsea head coach will not have his full squad to work with during the first week of July; the majority of those players who've been away on international duty this month aren't set to report back until the Blues are in Los Angeles. So returning loanees and a handful of promising youngsters should be involved.
Some will feel more confident in catching Tuchel's eye than others. Yet there is strong evidence the German coach does not come into pre-season with preconceived notions about a player's ability or their position in the squad hierarchy. He judges them on what he sees.
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That was proved last summer, in which Tuchel oversaw a complicated pre-season campaign. The European Championship and Copa America – plus ongoing Covid-19 restrictions – meant the Chelsea head coach had to put together a mix-and-match squad for the Blues' early warm-up matches.
Yet one player consistently caught his eye: Trevoh Chalobah. The 22-year-old had returned off a good season on loan at Lorient and was ready to follow in the footsteps of former academy teammates Reece James, Fikayo Tomori, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham and make his mark in the first-team squad.
"I didn't speak to the manager, I didn't know the manager. I had played against him when he was at PSG because he came in [to Chelsea] during the second half of the season, but I'd never spoken to him before coming back," Chalobah recalled in an interview with Baller Talk.
"I'd done work before pre-season to make sure I was ready but obviously coming back from Lorient, I didn't know what the plan was from Chelsea. Whether I'd be going on loan again or whatever."
"We had a chance to train with the first team – the loan players – because the Euros had just finished and the senior players were on holiday and not back until later on. So that gave the loan players a chance and in my head, I was like 'I've got nothing to lose here. I've had a successful loan, let me just carry that on, not relax. This is a chance for me to impress'.
"He (Tuchel) gave the loan players a platform to impress because we were with them the whole pre-season. As the training sessions went on, I was getting confidence and training well. The first game I played was against Bournemouth. Everyone played equal minutes; 45 each and I did well.
"Arsenal was next and I started that game – that gave me the confidence. I was doing well in training and he (Tuchel) was speaking to me and telling me to keep going. The next game was Tottenham and I started again, so I was getting more and more confident. And then came the Super Cup.
"I didn't expect to travel because it's a cup final, and by that time the senior players were back. They didn't have many training sessions but I thought they would play. But he told me I was in the squad – and I told my family I was travelling – but even I was thinking I wasn't going to be in the [matchday] squad, let alone play, because he took a massive squad
"When we went into the meeting room, I saw my name in the starting line-up and I was like rah. My heart was beating, it was a cup final. I was like damn, this is going to be my first cup final for my boyhood club. I remember warming up, going out onto the pitch, and thinking, 'this is it, this is what I've been waiting for'. It was my chance to show everyone that I was good.
"I played 120 minutes and we ended up winning the game. It was my second trophy, after the FA Cup, but it was a nice feeling playing in it and winning it."
It was shortly after that match that Tuchel made the decision to keep Chalobah at Chelsea for the 2021/22 campaign. His hard work had paid off. The centre-back went on to start the opening Premier League match of the campaign and scored a memorable third goal in the 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
Chalobah made 31 appearances in all competitions for Chelsea and signed a new five-year contract with the club in November. He is an example of what can be achieved through the loan-army route and someone that those who return for pre-season this summer should look to emulate.
“Of course, we look for the best talents in the world when we buy Kai Havertz and fantastic players from abroad," Tuchel stated last summer. "We have some of the best players in the world in our squad and still there are places for guys from the academy. I love it, the spectators love it.
"This is how it should be that we have a good mix and they still have a place to fight their way through. This is what Chelsea academy stands for top quality. And we will never stop pushing.”
