Chelsea Football Club currently have the best youth academy in Europe.
Taking Barcelona, Ajax and all others into account, the statement remains the same. Two-time defending UEFA Youth League champions and now three-time defending FA Youth Cup champions (their fifth in seven seasons), calling them the best is not hyperbole nor madness, but objective fact.
Despite this tremendous record at youth level, Chelsea are struggling to find promotional avenues for their academy stars. Many would attribute this to Jose Mourinho’s rather staunch preference for finished articles in his squads, making places for youth players a challenge, but this issue long predates the Portuguese’s second coming in June 2013.
Since John Terry’s became a full-time member of the Blues’ first team in 2000/01, the number of players to join the venerable centre-back from Chelsea’s academy (in any meaningful capacity) can be counted on one hand: Carlton Cole, Robert Huth, Ryan Bertrand and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
While Loftus-Cheek’s career looks promising, the other three — Cole (31 appearances), Huth (62 appearances) and Bertrand (57 appearances) — were unable to crack the west Londoners first team for longer than three seasons.
All the success in Chelsea youth system should demand the club take the top talent from both the academy and those sent on loan, then usher them into the first team.
Why, for example, should Chelsea be loaning the Radamel Falcao’s and Alexandre Pato’s of the world, when Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham exist? The process doesn’t quite make sense. Roman Abramovich has spent millions building the Blues’ youth systems, but the openings for talent to enter the first team aren’t forthcoming.
For the west Londoners to be sustainable long term — even post-Abramovich — constructing models for youngsters to develop must be established. As it stands, they don’t.
Loftus-Cheek is a kind of an experiment.
His progression, if successful, should open the doors for those ready to break one down. When Terry came through, there wasn’t this level of talent for Chelsea to handle, but in 2016, the quantity of worthy U21 footballers on the Blues’ books is massive.
Are there too many players?
Have Chelsea been greedy and signing too many players?
Are the players simply overrated?
The answers are “no” on all counts.
To get academy players into the first team, there must be concerted effort — from the top down. It’s not good enough for Abramovich to want more youth players coming through. The board, technical director, and manager/head coach must be willing to sacrifice potential signings from outside west London to help foster community and possibility.
Moreover, there is a chance — should procrastination continue — that the academy could stop being an attraction. Kids who sign with the club are signing to play for Chelsea, not be shipped to Vitesse Arnhem or caught between the bottom of the first team and the top of the U21s.
There appears a fork-in-the-road moment. With Antonio Conte ready to take over as head coach after Euro 2016, one of his tasks must be to develop young stars (Kurt Zouma, Kenedy, Baba Rahman, Bertrand Traore and Loftus-Cheek, etc.) and to nurture/debut those in the U21 ranks.
If that doesn’t happen, Chelsea could lose, arguably, their greatest generation of youth talent — which would be an injustice, travesty, and a damn shame.
