England Under 21 manager Gareth Southgate has praised Chelsea’s academy for the number of young, Englis players that it is producing.
Southgate said:
Chelsea have a fantastic academy system We have a huge number of players in our teams from their academy – some very, very exciting players.
Ola Aina, Lewis Baker, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Dominic Solanke and John Swift have all been included in England Under 21 squads this season, with Solanke, making his debut on Thursday night against Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Solanke is one of the players currently on loan from Chelsea to Dutch Vitesse Arnhem, and he’s managed to score four goals in 10 Eredivisie games this season.
Gareth Southgate said he’s been watching the 18-year-old striker for some time now, and also commented that he thinks the loan move to Holland is doing the youngster the world of good.
I’ve watched him through our system since he was 16. He’s a player of high potential, playing very well in the Eredivisie with Vitesse, playing in men’s football every week against teams like Ajax and Feyenoord.
Chelsea are often criticised for their loan policy and also their apparent reluctance to develop young players and bring them into the first team. However, at least in Southgate’s eyes, that criticism is unjustified.
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