Despite a youth program that has achieved massive success in recent seasons, Chelsea has not had a youth player break into the first-team and become a player of real influence since John Terry did so 17 years ago in 1998.
That drought seems to be nearing an end with so much talent currently being developed in the Chelsea youth system, which claimed the UEFA Youth League crown last week in the U19 ranks and is currently sitting in prime position to win a second consecutive FA Youth Cup in U18 play after a 3-1 victory at Manchester City on Monday night in the first leg of the competition. It is the fourth season on the spin that Chelsea have reached the FA Youth Cup final, and the sixth time in the past eight years overall.
With dazzling young talents like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Dominic Solanke, Nathan Aké, Isiah Brown and Andreas Christensen already training regularly with the senior squad, it seems imminent that one or all of these lads will get a real shot at playing with the first-team in the near future at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea manager José Mourinho has said more than once that Loftus-Cheek, in particular, will be a first-team player next season after the 19-year-old made his debut off the bench in a Champions League group stage match against Sporting Lisbon in December and later appeared in a Premier League match against Manchester City.
With other burgeoning talents such as Isiah Brown, Charlie Colkett, Charly Musonda and Jeremie Boga also waiting in the ranks, Chelsea have a youth program bursting at the seams with potential first-team contributors. With so many youth prospects – not to mention young players already on loan like Patrick Bamford and Bertrand Traoré – competition for first-team spots is incredibly high, as Mourinho stated recently in a report from the Mail Online.
“Some of the older ones will go on loan to play every game in the Championship or the Premier League, even abroad. And we will bring some of the younger ones into the process. But to have them all at the same time in the first-team squad is hard.
“I cannot have a squad of 10 men and 10 kids. I must have a squad like we have now of 16 or 17 seniors and three or four kids.”
This is logical from Mourinho, as loaning young players out to smaller sides to gain experience at the Championship or Premier League level is standard operating procedure. Making the jump from youth competition to the Premiership is not easily accomplished, so a spell – or multiple spells – on loan is a practical way to ease players into the highest level of competition in England.
The question for the aforementioned youngsters, though, is whether or not they will be able to earn a future opportunity with the Chelsea first-team, or if they will eventually have to move to another club for such a chance. With Chelsea constantly being linked to big-name players in the transfer market, there will not only be competition among the young players attempting to ascend through the ranks, but also from players being purchased by the club.
It is not an easy road for the young players to navigate, as the odds suggest that making it into the Chelsea first-team on a permanent basis are long. However, Mourinho says that Chelsea’s current batch of talented youth players will be given the opportunity to prove themselves through the ‘process’.
“Their development is easier when they’re training every day with the first-team, doing pre-season, playing some matches, playing 20 minutes or half an hour in an FA Cup match, Capital One Cup match, even a Champions League match or in the league now and again.
“They belong to a process. I can’t have 10 of these young players in my squad but I can have three or four and we did that with Loftus-Cheek, Brown, (Andreas) Christensen and (Nathan) Ake – and Solanke a few times.”
While Mourinho has made no guarantees, other than that we can expect Loftus-Cheek in the first-team next season, it’s clear that Chelsea’s efforts to improve its youth program have paid off. This is evidenced not only by the trophies being hauled in by the U18 and U19 squads, but also by the fact that the play of many of the young prospects has forced the discussion of their futures with the club to the forefront to be addressed by the Special One.
