Youth to First Team

Ruben Loftus-Cheek made his Chelsea First Team debut against Sporting Lisbon in December 2014

On Monday of last week saw the Chelsea Under-19s retain the UEFA Youth League title with a finals weekend that demonstrated that this side has determination and professionalism in abundance. The final started off well for the holders with Fikayo Tomori putting Chelsea in front after 10 minutes, minutes later Bradley Collins, Chelsea’s goalkeeper, saved a penalty from Paris Saint-Germain’s star man and first team numerous appearance maker, Jean-Kevin Augustin.

This save only proved to prolong the clean sheet until the 60th minute as Yakou Meite finally managed to beat the Chelsea goalkeeper after a lot of attempts.  As often said by many football pundits and ex-players, ‘the sign of champions is a team who can take the disappointment of conceding and come back at the opposition.’ The Chelsea Under-19s certainly did that with, Kasey Palmer, a key player in both the Under-19s and the Under-21s replying immediately with a lovely finish past the onrushing keeper.

Then Friday night I watched the Chelsea Youth team play the first leg of their FA Youth Cup final against Manchester City with the club aiming to win the competition for a third year in a row. The match ended 1-1 with goals from the rapidly improving Chelsea’s Mason Mount and City winger Aaron Nemane. With the second leg taking place tonight.

What I found very promising and I think nowadays surprising, was that all the players starting or on the bench for Chelsea in the first leg Friday night are qualified to play for England. As was the case in the UEFA Youth League Final win last Monday. Consequently, there is no element of bewilderment then that the England Youth team is full of Chelsea players.

With the successes shown above, as a Chelsea fan it is very annoying when you see the likes of Marcus Rashford for Manchester United, Kelechi Iheanacho for Manchester City and Alex Iwobi for Arsenal, taking the chances given to them with both hands. It just makes you wonder how well the Chelsea Youth Team players would do if given their opportunity to impress at First Team level, especially considering their successes showing they are at the top in their age groups both in England and on a European stage. Just look at Ruben Loftus-Cheek as an example, he has come into the Chelsea first team and hasn’t looked at all out of place.

Looking at the young Chelsea players out on loan alone, you get a sense that even though Chelsea can afford to go and buy the best players in the world maybe it would be more financially beneficial if the board and the management start looking closer to home. Take the young promising Belgium Charly Musonda, for instance, he has impressed since moving to Real Betis on loan in January making seven first team appearances, scoring one goal and providing one assist. Yet there are reports of the gifted young player extending his loan deal with Real Betis a further year, already indicating the stance Antonio Conte is going to take, bringing in experienced world-class players to get Chelsea back to winning trophies year after year.

I am sure many Chelsea supporters, like myself, wouldn’t berate the new manager if he can bring back success to the club. All that we ask is that while bringing in these experienced world-class players, why not blend in some youth players at the same time. Yes they are going to make mistakes but they will be all the better for it in the long run. Tottenham fans singing ‘Harry Kane, he’s one of our own’ can only be bearable for so long.