FOOTBALLERS tend to have to grow up fast. None more so than Nathan Ake, whose 21 years are crammed full with enough experiences to sustain a man many years his senior.

From sitting in front of one of world football’s most revered individuals at the age of 15 to tell him he no longer wanted to play for his club, through to becoming part of one of the most famous WhatsApp groups in the country, this impressive Dutchman has tasted some real highs – and absorbed a few significant lows.

Still dressed in training kit following Eddie Howe’s latest high-intensity session, Ake is recalling the time he broke the news to then Feyenoord sporting director Leo Beenhakker that his heart was set on a move to England.

“Those meetings were difficult,” Ake tells the Daily Echo of his discussions with the decorated former Ajax, Real Madrid and Holland national team boss.

“Sometimes you just have to say ‘I want to leave, I want to take that opportunity’. I was young so that was difficult to say to someone like that. But you have to make decisions and I think you get stronger and grow up faster from that.”

While Beenhakker was being driven “crazy” by losing his club’s brightest talents to the Premier League, Ake was setting up home abroad.

“It wasn’t that difficult,” he says modestly. “It’s not too far from Holland either so you can still go back for a weekend.”

Rafael Benitez, then in charge at Stamford Bridge, liked Ake.

After making his debut as a substitute at Norwich on Boxing Day 2012, a teenaged Ake featured a further six times for Chelsea that season. Then Benitez left – and Jose Mourinho arrived. The Portuguese promptly shunted the young prospect down to the development squad.

“At that time you think this and that and you’re angry,” says Ake. “But two or three days later, I switched off all the negative things and tried to be positive, train hard and play as best as I could with the under-21s.

“You have to work hard for it, it doesn’t just come like this (clicks fingers). I was rewarded after six months when the manager called me back into the first team.”

Ake subsequently played five games in 18 days on loan at Reading, a whirlwind period he describes as “something else”.

It was his season with Watford last year, however, that proved to Ake he belongs at the top end of the game. It also gave him an insight into the Premier League’s ability to keep a player grounded Eight days after scoring in his team’s 3-0 win over Liverpool on December 20 – “everything was great and I was happy” – Ake was sent off in a game against Tottenham.

“It was a big learning curve for me,” he says. “I was down and disappointed in myself. I’d never had a red card, but you have to pick yourself up and go again.”

Ake is one of 38 Chelsea players currently out on loan. Right through the Premier League down to the Ryman Premier, and in eight more countries, across two continents, you can find someone trying to prove his worth to the west London club.

The 38 have their own WhatsApp group where they keep each other up to speed on their respective fortunes. Their progress is tracked by former Chelsea midfielder Eddie Newton, who heads a team monitoring the club’s loan players.

But while Ake’s long-term ambitions lie at Stamford Bridge, he is intent on making a go of his season-long stay with Cherries.

“I chose to come here after I spoke with the manager,” says Ake, who had other offers in England and abroad. “I fitted into his plans and it was good. I want to get into the team as quickly as possible, play a lot of games, do well and learn more.”