The Tykes Go Gaga Over Their New Keeper: Gabriel Slonina at Barnsley (olf Chelsea)

Long term career development-wise, definitely. Barca's U-21s play against grown-assed men in Spain's regionalized D3 system while still being part of a club's youth development process. With promotion to D2 not being an objective in the first place, falling short is not failure while relegation, although a crushing disappointment, just doesn't have the same dire consequences for the club, the coaches or even the players' careers.

Kochen has the triple benefit of far fiercer competition on the pitch than Gaga will ever face in EPL League2 but without the fear factor, while still being shown more support and patience with bloopers and fluctuations in form than any loan club will show.

12 months ago Slonina was a dark horse for 2026. He's out of the running now but Kochen might - might - have a shot if Barca break with policy and send a serious first-team prospect out on loan.

 

Do you mean Premier League 2 or EFL League Two? Gaga has never played in EFL League Two.

 

Premier League 2, Chelsea's U-21 side

 

I'm not sure he'd get in. They already have 5 goalkeepers in their U21 squad. Since Merrick went out on loan they seem to be rotating starts.

 

Yet another reason why loan army deals are bad. MLS is a decent league, with salary levels equivalent to EL sides in the Eredivisie and he was a starter for Chicago.

Now he has to "wait his turn" in a development league.

I hope he's enjoying the $1m salary because he's effectively back where he was at the start of the 2021 MLS season

 

I can't argue with that.

 

I don't get why Chelsea didn't just try and loan him again to Belgium or even Eredivisie or heck Poland maybe? League One was such an odd place

 

Teams are limited to 6 international loans, with exceptions for U21 homegrowns.

Chelsea sent out Petrovic (GK), Fofana, Wiley, Anselmino, and Penders (GK) in the summer. Slonina isn't important enough to Chelsea to burn that last spot.

 

He's still listed as having a finger injury so that's one reason: who wants an injured GK?

That aside, there's the question of finding a team - in January - that wants a loanee GK, plays at a level that's worth sending him to and where he has a shot at starting. All of those are difficult but him being a GK is the hardest - while a CB, say, could be deployed at RB or DM if needed, there's only one position he can play.

If he's not going to be a starter, better keep him at home and let him train under your coaches and to your standards

 

Gabriel Slonina looks to have recovered from his finger injury. Here he is (far left) taking part in Chelsea’s first team training session.

Curious what the plan is for him. Imagine he gets another loan in the coming days, but is he going to get playing time in a 6 month spell? pic.twitter.com/SWTBNxvaGd

— USMNT Source (@usmntsource) January 27, 2025

appears he has recovered from his finger injury in the fall but he could have reinjured recently

 

Swiss League transfer window closes in a week and Poland in two weeks. MLS regular season starts soon.

 

Solid points but I meant his loan to Barnsley in the first place.

 

Geographical proximity would be one reason: Belgium is close and easy to keep an eye on him but Poland is a long way away and English isn't that widely spoken.

Another would be getting him used to the sui generis English game and its intensity, which would be especially high at the business end of League One.

Without interest from the better-run Eredivisie or Jupiler sides, there wouldn't have been any point in sending him there. That's quite possible; relegation strugglers like Eupen are places to showcase your shot-stopping but not your defence organizing and well-run sides are reluctant to take young GKs on loan anyway.

Most of all, they probably thought he was ready to stand out in a League One promotion race and, after a bright start, he showed he was a bit short of that. That's a major setback. It's far from terminal, but stepping back up is going to test his mental resilience.

 

I wouldn't discount Poland's Ekstraklassa.

Gaga is fluent in Polish and has a lot of family there. He still remains eligible for their national teams (including the U-21 team) via a one-time switch. I think money would be the biggest hurdle. Chelsea would have to eat a lot of his salary.

 

Would they have to eat more of it than they did with Barnsley?

The top sides would have budgets similar to the Tykes' or maybe a little higher. The bottom sides are another matter.

Didn't know he was fluent in Polish. That removes a barrier and offers an outright incentive - he'd probably find the opportunity to improve it attractive

 

Polish is easier to understand than Barnsley.

 

Barnsley is not a suburb of Glasgow. It's fine.

 

Barnsley is allegedly the only place in the English speaking world where they have familiar and formal pronouns. They use tha (familiar) and thee (formal) instead of you.

 

FotMob just changed Gaga's expected injury return date from "mid-March" to "doubtful" (Dest, Pepi, and Tillman are also graded as "doubtful" right now).

That would make it sound like instead of being back soon, he'll be out for the season; but I can't find any news articles or updates. Does anyone here know anything?

 

For a finger injury? Seriously?

I don't like conspiracy theorizing but this seems very strange.

Maybe @bshredder has some info?

 

Poor luck but at least he's still pocketing that Chelsea $$$

 

He would've recovered more quickly from an amputation.

 

Any news?

 

Slonina has a decent amount of games under his belt...how good is he.

 

Well he is a goalkeeper.