Chelsea F.C - Youth First

[Sam91]

Chelsea F.C - Youth First

Chelsea are a club who have had a huge amount of success since being taken over by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2003. But the one constant criticism of the club from its fans is the fact that not a single youth graduate has broken through the ranks since John Terry.

There have been a few come through the academy which have gotten the fans excited. Scott Sinclair, Josh McEachran, Jack Cork and Liam Bridcutt to name but a few. There's certainly nothing wrong with the recruitment, facilities or standard of youth coaching at the club. So where does the blame lie? Many pin it down to the fact the owner demands constant success and trophies pouring the pressure on the managers to deliver straight away.

Carlo Ancelotti tried to bring through Josh McEachran in 2010 and the midfielder managed to make 11 appearances for the club, but after Ancelotti was sacked he was farmed out on loan like much young talent these days.

But in the past few seasons Roman has slightly changed his ways, he wants the club to start developing more homegrown players. He's put a slight hold on the cheque book, obeying the new financial fairplay rules demanding sales before purchasing anyone new.

The academy is currently littered with some quality young players, all you have to do is look at the past winners of the Youth FA Cup to see how good the youngsters are at Chelsea:

Four times in the past six years they've won the competition. So all the club really needs is a manager who's willing to take a chance on some of these youngsters.....

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[SaintMotbot]

Good stuff, Will follow this! Great things are possible with the likes of Loftus-Cheek, Baker, Musonda, Boga and Solanke.

 

[PafcLad]

good luck mate

 

[Sam91]

good luck mate

Thanks bud

Good stuff, Will follow this! Great things are possible with the likes of Loftus-Cheek, Baker, Musonda, Boga and Solanke.

Thanks man, shame 3 of them are on loan right now though!!

 

[TheOtherSpecialOne]

This will be a very interesting read, it's definately going to be tricky to fulfill the huge Chelsea expectations with mostly relying on youngsters but with the right manager...

 

[Sam91]

Mourinho Leaves Chelsea

Jose Mourinho has today called time on his tenure at Chelsea citing personal reasons for his departure. Its been rumoured that his father is very sick back home in Portugal.

Youth Team coach Sam Birch has been promoted to the role of First Team Coach and been left in charge on a 12 month contract whilst Mourinho deals with his personal problems. Its believed Mr Birch will promoting many youth players he's been working with over the past few years.

Here's a few words from the Interim First Team Coach:

''I'm obviously honoured to be in this position but firstly I'd like to thank Jose for recommending me for this job. Its awful what's happening with him and his family life and he knows everyone at Chelsea wish him the best. The club has some cracking young players here though that I've been working with and I know the fans want to see more of them. Expect to see more of Ruben, Ola Aina, Jay daSilva and Kenedy this season.''


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[Sam91]

Three To Watch This Season

Ruben Loftus-Cheek

Ruben's got the world at his feet. He'll be getting plenty of game time this season in my central midfield trio. Some cracking base stats and a real favourite of mine.



Kenedy

This lad can become a world beater. Seriously some insane stats for a 19 year old winger. Ahead of Pedro in my selection order for that right wing spot and hopefully can progress well.



Ola Aina

The nippy full back may not look all that but he is my back up right back with Ivanovic being sold. If either Baba or Azpi can't play he's gonna be playing, so some serious responsibility on the lads shoulders.​

 

[PatrickLFC]

Loftus-Cheek's potential ability there can't be right, surely??

 

[coolmcool]

Glad to have this back mate, good luck

 

[Hellsdoom]

As a Chelsea fan, I wish you good luck with that.

 

[Sam91]

As a Chelsea fan, I wish you good luck with that.

Cheers pal!

Glad to have this back mate, good luck

Thanks man, good to be back!!

Loftus-Cheek's potential ability there can't be right, surely??

Thats what I was thinking, but I suppose if you compare him to Cesc who's our best CM then its accurate? I dunno do feel like they've sold him short a tad which is strange because I've seen Miles Jacobson big him up a fair bit on twitter!

 

[Sam91]

August 2015

Two departures, no one signed
Kenedy and Traore net first goals for the club
Solid enough start to the season



Transfer News

Just two sales is all. Mikel asked to leave as he wanted a new challenge, Ivanovic wasn't in my plans at all and with a year left on his contract I cashed in. I did have a bid for Tielemans rejected, I also went in for Stones but so did Arsenal and United. Bidding ended up reaching £55m which was ridiculous and I pulled out. He joined Arsenal in the end.



Community Shield

Line Up

Starts for Kenedy, RLC and Ola Aina at right back due to Baba being away on International duty.


Arsenal 2 - 2 Chelsea

Hazard(PEN), Costa

It went to penalties, all my lads converted including JT. Sanchez and Campbell's were saved by Teebo though and we win our first trophy!!!


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League


Chelsea 4 - 0 Aston Villa

Kenedy, Hazard(2), Costa

A great start to our Premier League defence, glad to keep a clean sheet. Great to see Kenedy net on his BPL debut. Hazard was unplayable though.



West Brom 0 - 2 Chelsea

Costa(2)

A second half brace from Diego made up for Hazard's first half penalty miss. Courtois picked up a slight knock and will miss the Everton game...



Chelsea 3 - 0 Everton

Pedro, Traore, Oscar

The big news here was a start in goal for Jamal Blackman. Injuries to Begovic and Courtois meant it was a choice between him and summer signing Marco Amelia, the 33 year old Italian.... I meant with Jamal and he kept a clean sheet and got a 6.9 rating. Pedro, starting his first game of the season for us, netted early on. But it took until the 77th minute for substitute Bertrand Traore to give us some breathing space. Oscar put some gloss on the result.



Liverpool 2 - 1 Chelsea

Zouma

Hugely frustrating match, we were by far the better side until Kurt Zouma got himself sent off. He'd been on form too until then!! Lucas also saw red, and a mistake at the back post from Azpi let Benteke sneak in and get the three points for Liverpool... revenge will be had.


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Monthly Review


Not a bad start at all. Four wins from five but just a shame to end the month on that Liverpool game! Costa has been superb, along with Azpi and Zouma. Ruben Loftus-Cheek has started every match but has been pretty average. Kenedy has impressed out wide also. In the Champions League we've drawn an tough group:

Porto are no pushovers. Lazio also have a very good squad and I had a save with Salzburg last year and know they're not to be underestimated with Jonathan Soriano up top.



Player of the Month

Diego Costa

The beast himself has got off to a flyer with 4 goals in 5 games. Constant menace.



Table

Early on but United have made a great start conceding just once in 4 games.​

 

[Lippo255]

Great start man, always find these youth oriented saves entertaining. Good luck.

 

[Sam91]

Great start man, always find these youth oriented saves entertaining. Good luck.

Thanks man, enjoying yours too just reading through it now!

 

[Sam91]

Chelsea Youngster Rocked By Injury

Chelsea youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek is facing a spell out injured for 3-4 months.

Really bad luck for the young lad who'd started all of Chelsea games so far this season. Ruben is thought very highly of at the Bridge and this injury is sure to frustrate the new manager who was looking to give Loftus-Cheek plenty of game time this season.

 

[PafcLad]

the sort of approach i think chelsea should take from now on to the rest of the season in real life, nothing to lose!

 

[Sam91]

the sort of approach i think chelsea should take from now on to the rest of the season in real life, nothing to lose!

Totally agree. I'm being serious mate. Barring Azpi and Willian everyone else has been shocking, shame players like Baker, Brown, Solanke, Kalas, Christensen, Bamford ect. are out on loan

 

[Sam91]

Costa In Bust Up With New Blues Boss

Diego Costa have been involved in a furious bust up with new Chelsea boss Sam Birch.

Its been reported the team confronted the new blues boss about the strength in depth in midfield after the sale of Mikel. Birch managed to win over players like Eden Hazard and John Terry by informing them of his plans to utilise the youngsters at the club. Sadly for the new Chelsea manager Diego Costa remained unconvinced and its rumoured the pair had to be separated by senior players.

Its bad news for Birch with Diego Costa starting the season superbly and with just Falcao and Remy to choose from if Costa was to force a move away Birch may be forced to dip into the market should the Spaniard leave.
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[Sam91]

September 2015

League form continues to be solid
Champions League kicks off to mixed results
Tight tie as the kids go up against Villa in the League Cup



League


Chelsea 5 - 2 Arsenal

Koscielny OG, Hazard, Costa(3)

Tight up until Costa seemed to put his hatred for me and turn it on Arsenal. Ola Aina played against Arsenal again as Baba wasn't fit, Sanchez tore him apart though and he came off after an hour.



Tottenham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Hazard

A goal from Eden after 3 minutes settled this tight match. Charly Musonda came off the bench for his BPL debut here.



Chelsea 2 - 1 Sunderland

Hazard(2)

A brace from Eden won it for us, Borini got one back for them but we were always in control.


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League Cup


Chelsea 2 - 0 Aston Villa
(AET)

Kenedy(2)

A brace from Kenedy saw us progress here its just a shame it took so long to break Villa down. Starts for Aina and Dasilva at full back. Trevoh Chalobah became our youngest ever player as he superbly shielded the back 4 with 17 year old Kyle Scott and and 16 year old Jacob Maddox(who played the whole 120 minutes) bossing the midfield. Musonda played left wing with Kenedy on the other side and Falcao was given a run out up top in the absence of Traore due to injury.


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Champions League


Chelsea 1 - 0 Lazio

Hazard

Eden's hot streak continued into Europa as his goal after an hour settled this tight tie.



FC Porto 2 - 1 Chelsea

Pedro

I would have settled for a draw here. It was heading that way until we gave away a cheap penalty and Osvaldo converted it. Disappointing.


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Monthly Review


Excluding the Porto loss it was a perfect month for us. The notable thing being after Costa's hattrick against Arsenal his performances dipped due to our argument I believe. So Bertrand Traore may be given some more game time as Falcao is awful and I'll be looking to offload Remy in January.

Our Champions League group is now wide open and I'll be happy to just get out of it!! In other news our stadium is going to be expanded by 6000 seats.... costing a whopping £25m!



Player of the Month

Eden Hazard

If only he was performing half as good in real life!!! Lads been on fire this month.



Tables

United still leading in the league but we're close behind. In the Champions League Lazio are struggling, the good news is our next 2 games are against Red Bull!
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[Masoaoki]

Always love your stories mate, great emphasis on youth development. Best of luck!