George McEachran is the focus of the fourth episode of Life on Loan, the series highlighting our emerging young players and their experiences away from Chelsea. It is now available to watch on The 5th Stand app.
The 19-year-old joined Dutch second-tier side SC Cambuur on loan at the end of January, and the film catches up with the midfielder after a few weeks in the Netherlands and before the current pandemic.
McEachran is adapting to what is his first significant step into the professional game, and all the challenges that come with that. He speaks candidly about leaving his comfort zone at Chelsea to move to another country and test himself in a different environment.
‘The reason I wanted to go on loan was to get some experience in the environment of first team football,’ George says.
‘The first time I heard about going out on loan was in the first week of January. My agent rang me and said this team in the second division are interested in you. I was very excited to start my first training session, but it was very different not seeing the same faces I have been with for the past 11 years.
‘Training is different. They’re bigger, stronger, wiser to the game. The demands in training are massive, the intensity, everyone is willing to get a place in the starting XI so they train how they play, every single day.’
There are also contributions from loan player technical coach Tore Andre Flo, who visits the midfielder in the Netherlands to see how he is getting on, with behind-the-scenes access to their catch-up caught on camera.
Cambuur were four points clear at the top of the Eerste Divisie when football was suspended, and their coach Henk de Jong explains what he sees in McEachran and the challenges the young Chelsea player has to deal with on his first loan.
You can watch the full film with McEachran on The 5th Stand app now, in what is the fourth episode of our Life on Loan feature.
Download our official app for more great content like this, including exclusive chats with Frank Lampard, and indulge on all our boxsets in the Watch section.
Previous Life on Loan features with Conor Gallagher, Nathan Baxter and Dujon Sterling are all still available to watch on the app.