Josh McEachran

He made his debut in a 2–0 defeat to Sunderland on 21 January, coming off the bench in the 66th minute for Gylfi Sigurðsson.

McEachran made his first start for the Swans in a FA Cup fourth round match against Bolton Wanderers, playing the full 90 minutes of the 2–1 defeat.

After dropping back to the bench, he finished his spell with just five appearances.

He became the first player to be born after the Champions League began on 25 November 1992 to take part in the competition.

McEachran made his Premier League debut on 25 September in a 1–0 defeat to Manchester City, replacing Ramires after 81 minutes.

He made his first Chelsea start in the return Champions League match against Žilina on 23 November and also started the Blues' dead rubber group stage match versus Marseille on 8 December, completing his first 90 minutes for the club.

With manager Carlo Ancelotti preferring to utilise him in a deep midfield role, he went on to make 17 appearances in his debut season.

Joshua Mark McEachran (born 1 March 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Oxford United.

McEachran is a product of the Chelsea academy and won 38 caps and scored three goals for England at youth level.

He spent several years with Chelsea as a professional but played little, and spent time on loan at clubs to at home and abroad.

He signed a two-year scholarship deal prior to the beginning of the 2009–10 season and helped the Blues' youth team win the FA Youth Cup for the first time in 50 years.

The youth team's feats saw the entire squad collectively win Chelsea's Young Player of the Year award.

He also broke into the reserve team and made 9 Premier Reserve League appearances.

McEachran received his first exposure to the first team during the 2009–10 season, when he travelled with the squad to a League Cup fifth round match versus Blackburn Rovers in December 2009 and trained with the first team throughout the first half of 2010.

McEachran made 10 Premier Reserve League appearances during the 2010–11 season, helping the team to first place in the Premier Reserve League South, though he did not feature in the knockout stage, which Chelsea won, to win the league outright.

McEachran was named in Chelsea's Champions League squad for the 2010–11 season and received his maiden call when he was named as a substitute for a group stage match versus MŠK Žilina on 15 September 2010.

He made his senior debut when he replaced Yossi Benayoun after 79 minutes of the 4–1 victory.

He made sporadic appearances for the reserves during the 2011–12 and 2013–14 seasons.

In recognition of his performances, McEachran was awarded the Chelsea Young Player of The Year award on 19 May 2011.

McEachran's regular inclusion in the squad was viewed by pundits as a suggestion that the Chelsea administration recognised the importance of younger players in an otherwise ageing team.

On 15 July 2011, McEachran signed a new five-year contract and scored his first senior goal for the club in the friendly 2011 Premier League Asia Trophy final versus Aston Villa two weeks later.

McEachran made just five appearances during the 2011–12 season and was frozen out by new manager André Villas-Boas.

On 17 January 2012, McEachran completed a loan move to Premier League newcomers Swansea City until the end of the 2011–12 season.

The move reunited him with Brendan Rodgers, his former Chelsea youth and reserve team manager.

On 20 August 2012, McEachran joined Championship club Middlesbrough on loan for the entirety of the 2012–13 season.

He made his debut for Middlesbrough the next day, playing the full 90 minutes of a 3–2 victory over Burnley.

He became regular for Boro, creating a strong midfield partnership with Grant Leadbitter and also playing on the left of midfield, though an ankle injury picked up on international duty hampered his progress in the second half of the season.

He made 38 appearances during a season in which Middlesbrough challenged for a playoff place, but drifted well out of contention.

McEachran was voted by the Boro supporters as the club's Young Player of the Year.

Looking back in January 2013, McEachran revealed that the move was "one of those things in life which just didn't work out" and that he learned "nothing" during his spell.

On 20 September 2013, McEachran joined Championship side Watford on loan until 2 January 2014, with an option to extend the loan until the end of the 2013–14 season.

His debut came four days later with a start in the League Cup third round versus Norwich City, but he was substituted for Connor Smith on 38 minutes after suffering a back spasm.

McEachran made just eight appearances for Watford before returning to Stamford Bridge when his initial loan expired.

On 23 January 2014, McEachran signed with Championship club Wigan Athletic on loan until the end of the 2013–14 season.

He moved on to Brentford in 2015, playing 90 league matches over four seasons, and spent 16 months with Birmingham City; both spells were disrupted by injury.

He describes his midfield style as "a holder and a passer, dictating play".

A midfielder, McEachran began playing football for Garden City in the Oxford Mail Boys League, where he was spotted by a Chelsea scout.

He joined the Blues' academy at the age of seven.

From January 2012 onwards, he spent much of his subsequent Chelsea career away on loan and was not called into a squad before departing from Stamford Bridge on 10 July 2015.

McEachran made 22 appearances and scored no goals during five seasons as a senior player at Chelsea.