Report: Matt Miazga not likely to return to Chelsea or Vitesse next season

Vitesse closed out one of the more successful seasons in its history with a 3-0 win over Roda JC on May 14, clinchng a fifth-place finish in Eredivisie to go alongside the KNVB Cup it won at the end of April - its first ever major trophy.

Matt Miazga played the full 90 minutes for Vitesse in the season-ending win. It was his 15th start and 23rd appearancein the league for Vitesse. He also appeared in every one of the club's KNVB Cup matches, including a start in the final against AZ.

All told, it was as successful a season for Miazga as it was for Vitesse. He was loaned to the Dutch club by Chelsea on transfer deadline day last summer. He was immediately included in the first-team's match-day squads, and won his first stint as a starter in October, after senior center-back Maikel van der Werff went down injured. But he lost his place after the team's form dipped, and seemed likely to see out the season as a lightly-used substitute.

Van der Werff went down again in February, however, and Miazga got a second shot at starting. This time - in part because it would seem van der Werff never quite fully recovered - the young American center-back held on to his place in the lineup. He has shown growth over the course of the season, and would appear to have developed into a reliably competent starter for a top-five team in Eredivisie. (It should be noted that fifth in the Dutch top flight this season was closer to 10th - eight points - than it was to fourth. Vitesse finished 11 points short of fourth-placed Utrecht, and 25 points short of third-placed PSV.)

Nizam Kinsella reports for Goal.com that Miazga's performances on loan haven't won him a place in Chelsea's plans for next season, but they may have won him another loan to a higher-level club. As Kinsella notes, Miazga was linked to Premier League (Sunderland was one), La Liga (Espanyol), and Bundesliga clubs before ultimately moving to Vitesse. There was the perception at the time that his options had been limited by Chelsea's reluctance to let Miazga go until it had finalized a move for a more senior defender - and it took a little too long for the club to secure David Luiz to finalize any loan out to one of the bigger-name teams allegedly interested in the American.

But the rumor mill had a lot of fun with Miazga's need for a new club last summer, and it looks set to have similar fun this summer. Per Kinsella's report, 2016-17 Eredivisie champion Feyenoord and third-placed PSV are among the early suitors for the former New York Red Bulls player's services. Chelsea is expected to wait for a few other offers to come in, with the apparent hope of placing Miazga at an ostensibly higher-level club than he was at this season.

Whatever his future holds, expect to see a lot of Matt Miazga in the summer's transfer gossip stories.