Charly Musonda Jr.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Maybe English clubs should stop taking all the best youth players from the smaller leagues if they're not actually going to do anything with them.

Musonda would be years beyond where he is now if he played in Anderlecht's first team last year, like Thielemans for example.

He's 18 and massively talented. He should be playing first team football somewhere right now.

Same with Januzaj at United. He was the only ray of light in the Moyes season, he even gets Giggs's jersey number, and then LVG comes in and buys a couple of underperforming superstars. Place in the squad lost, place in the national team lost. Year lost. He played half of the matches for the reserves, which is an outrage in my eyes.

There's lots of money in the Premier League, but you can't buy vision.

[zolayes 14,489]

Maybe English clubs should stop taking all the best youth players from the smaller leagues if they're not actually going to do anything with them.

Musonda would be years beyond where he is now if he played in Anderlecht's first team last year, like Thielemans for example.

He's 18 and massively talented. He should be playing first team football somewhere right now.

Same with Januzaj at United. He was the only ray of light in the Moyes season, he even gets Giggs's jersey number, and then LVG comes in and buys a couple of underperforming superstars. Place in the squad lost, place in the national team lost. Year lost. He played half of the matches for the reserves, which is an outrage in my eyes.

There's lots of money in the Premier League, but you can't buy vision.

Our handling of our young players boarders on the criminal . Only AVB and Carlo were ever willing to give them a chance . ANY young player would me crazy

to join us . We have not improved and developed any young player since JT .. Players like Bertrand improved DESPITE us.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Let me also add that Van Gaal is completely overrated.

Wow. You got fourth place in the PL after spending € 200 million on a couple of chumps? Impressive!

Yeah, he won some incredible prices with a wonder generation at Ajax in the nineties but what did he do after that? Won a couple of titles with Barcelona and Bayern. Not very difficult if you look at their teams at the time. Every decent manager would have done the same.

Never won the CL again after Ajax. Got third place at the world cup with a shitty dutch team and lots of luck but failed to even qualify in 2002 with players like Van Nistelrooy, Kluivert, Stam, Van der Sar, Davids, Hasselbaink, Seedorf, Makaay, Van Bommel and De boer.

Arrogant twat.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Our handling of our young players boarders on the criminal . Only AVB and Carlo were ever willing to give them a chance . ANY young player would me crazy

to join us . We have not improved and developed any young player since JT .. Players like Bertrand improved DESPITE us.

And how do you get them? By throwing a bag of money at the parents. Ripping 15 year old boys away from their friends and family and making them millionaires before they even got a minute of first team football.

Also, our development system is better, otherwise there wouldn't be dozens of talents to steal. There should seriously be a ban on -18 EU transfers to other countries. You're sucking our league dry for nothing. Seriously nothing.

If Lukaku would have joined Chelsea at 16, he'd probably never have played one game of first team football. He was saved by his name and his price tag.

[marketing media pet 27]

Let me also add that Van Gaal is completely overrated.

Wow. You got fourth place in the PL after spending € 200 million on a couple of chumps? Impressive!

Yeah, he won some incredible prices with a wonder generation at Ajax in the nineties but what did he do after that? Won a couple of titles with Barcelona and Bayern. Not very difficult if you look at their teams at the time. Every decent manager would have done the same.

Never won the CL again after Ajax. Got third place at the world cup with a shitty dutch team and lots of luck but failed to even qualify in 2002 with players like Van Nistelrooy, Kluivert, Stam, Van der Sar, Davids, Hasselbaink, Seedorf, Makaay, Van Bommel and De boer.

Arrogant twat.

not to mention he was sacked mid season at barca for hovering above relegation zone..

[Atholy 1,293]

Maybe English clubs should stop taking all the best youth players from the smaller leagues if they're not actually going to do anything with them.

Musonda would be years beyond where he is now if he played in Anderlecht's first team last year, like Thielemans for example.

He's 18 and massively talented. He should be playing first team football somewhere right now.

Same with Januzaj at United. He was the only ray of light in the Moyes season, he even gets Giggs's jersey number, and then LVG comes in and buys a couple of underperforming superstars. Place in the squad lost, place in the national team lost. Year lost. He played half of the matches for the reserves, which is an outrage in my eyes.

There's lots of money in the Premier League, but you can't buy vision.

SPOT ON! Couldn't have said it any better.

It's one thing buying these super talents... but it's another thing to handle them. Actually they should never be put in the Reserve or U21's team. Maybe the first months, just to see how eager they are. But certainly not more than 1 year!

Just loan them out, preferably back to their home clubs. They will continue the progress in their career instead of getting frustrated not getting any chances!

I can't imagine Musonda wants to play with the U18's/U21's for a 3rd consecutive year. He wants to finally prove what he's worth!

Keeping him in in the U21 for another year and not loaning him out... will simply end up in one thing: He will leave the club! And that would be a massive massive mistake!!!! Just because of stubborn behavior.

If Mou doesn't want him in preseason... at least give the kid a break and send him out on loan immediately so he can at least have a full preseason with a new club! No need for waiting another month, this will only do damage to his progress + his love for our club!

Just send him to Monaco... perfect club for him!

[RhesusReus 219]

wow. some of you lot are getting out of control now.

chill the fuck out.

no one is ruining anybody. If you're talented, committed, and motivated, you will make it. Just look at De Bruyne.

We aren't ruining anyone. These kids are getting their profiles raised by signing for Chelsea, they are getting the best facilities in the world for training and developing, they are geting paid handsomely, and they are getting loans to quality clubs.

I like Musonda, and think he should be getting 1st team chances, but this absurd victimization of Musonda/youths and this pity party for the fallen young is silly. No one's career has been ruined because they signed for us. They either made it into the 1st team (like Courtois and Traore is about to) or they get sold to quality clubs (like Lukaku and KdB and Bertrand).

again, calm the fuck down. If we have the next Hazard or Cesc in the youth, nothing Jose does is going to prevent that kid from making it big. Every youth player nowadays has a highlight reel on YouTube, gets insane social media attention, and has tons of games in u21s and European Club tournaments to prove themselves.

So, stop crying tears for Musonda. He's going to be a great player if he keeps up. It's not going to be for us, of this I'm pretty sure, but Chelsea isn't ruining his career. He is considered one of Europe's best prospects and he'll have plenty of suitors.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

wow. some of you lot are getting out of control now.

chill the fuck out.

no one is ruining anybody. If you're talented, committed, and motivated, you will make it. Just look at De Bruyne.

We aren't ruining anyone. These kids are getting their profiles raised by signing for Chelsea, they are getting the best facilities in the world for training and developing, they are geting paid handsomely, and they are getting loans to quality clubs.

I like Musonda, and think he should be getting 1st team chances, but this absurd victimization of Musonda/youths and this pity party for the fallen young is silly. No one's career has been ruined because they signed for us. They either made it into the 1st team (like Courtois and Traore is about to) or they get sold to quality clubs (like Lukaku and KdB and Bertrand).

again, calm the fuck down. If we have the next Hazard or Cesc in the youth, nothing Jose does is going to prevent that kid from making it big. Every youth player nowadays has a highlight reel on YouTube, gets insane social media attention, and has tons of games in u21s and European Club tournaments to prove themselves.

So, stop crying tears for Musonda. He's going to be a great player if he keeps up. It's not going to be for us, of this I'm pretty sure, but Chelsea isn't ruining his career. He is considered one of Europe's best prospects and he'll have plenty of suitors.

All of the other players you mentioned had already proven themselves at the highest level in Belgium before they signed a contract at Chelsea. Courtois and De Bruyne made Genk Champions, Lukaku was the youngest top scorer ever in the Jupiler league. If they would have signed for you before they played first team football, they would probably not have made it. Give me a list of youth players you developed and trained yourself and made it to a decent level in the premier league. I'm very curious.

[RhesusReus 219]

All of the other players you mentioned had already proven themselves at the highest level in Belgium before they signed a contract at Chelsea. Courtois and De Bruyne made Genk Champions, Lukaku was the youngest top scorer ever in the Jupiler league. If they would have signed for you before they played first team football, they would probably not have made it. Give me a list of youth players you developed and trained yourself and made it to a decent level in the premier league. I'm very curious.

"They probably would not have made it." Why? How do you know? Would they not have had quality coaching and facilities? Would they not have been loaned out to a team like Vitesse (playing in a better league than the Belgian league)? What would have stopped Courtois from becoming a great keeper? What would have stopped De Bruyne from becoming a good midfielder?

Nothing. They had talent and they were going to get plenty of game time in a good team, like Courtois did at Atletico and Lukaku did at West Brom.

As for us developing players:

The Academy has really gotten to being world class in the past 5 years or so, and you are starting to see the like of RLC making into the first team squad.

Not every player is going to make the Chelsea squad, which is a top 5 European squad. Most will be like Ryan Bertrand and Patrick van Annholt and will be sold: both play regularly in the EPL. One or two every 5 years or so will make the Chelsea team.

You make it sound like every prospect in the Chelsea academy is as good as a Courtois, or a De Bruyne, or Musonda. Most of them are pretty average talents. Right now is the truly great crop of academy players we've ever had. Before this period, Josh Mceachran was the best talent we've had at the academy, and he's no where near a Courtois or KdB or Musonda.

You are going to see the likes of Boga, Musonda, Baker, Brown and Bamford all have good careers at other clubs besides Chelsea in the coming years. These players are the products of Chelsea academy when it became really top notch.

[nyikolajevics 2,422]

They're kids, they'll have plenty time to develop a professional attutude, i think it's retarded how people judge them based on social media posts.

I partly agree with you but professional athletes must grow up early and act responsibly. Musonda is very talented indeed but Balotelli was a huge talent too. I don't want to see Charly spoil his gift, I hope he keeps working hard and forget twitter for Mourinho's sake.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

My point is that Courtois and KDB already had a full season of first team experience at Musonda's age.
Lukaku had had two at the time.

Unless he's loaned out to a good European team this year, the boy's wasting his time.

Also, I didn't see you post a list of Chelsea youth players playing for at least mid table premier league teams right now.

London has eight million inhabitants. Brussels has about a million. Liège has about 200.000. Genk has 66.000.

Let's see a list of young prospects that were at least partly formed by these three teams alone that have now regularly played in Europe (at least at Europa cup level): Lukaku, Musonda, Kompany, Januzaj, Praet, Thielemans, Kouyaté, Courtois, KDB, Defour, Benteke, Fellaini, Witsel, Mbokani, Carcela, Vanden Borre, Denayer, Ferreira-Carrasco, Mirallas, Origi, Chadli, Batshuayi... et cetera. I'm sure I forgot a couple. 15 years ago, we had practically no talents. Then we changed the system. Musonda of course hasn't, but would have, had he still been at Anderlecht.


All of these except Kompany and VDB were formed in the last ten years.

Where's your list?

World class academy? Yeah right, it's easy to have a world class academy when you have mountains of pounds to steal every talent that's out there.

I'm not even blaming Chelsea. This goes for every English top tier team. You have tons of money but no vision whatsoever.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

My point is that Courtois and KDB already had a full season of first team experience at Musonda's age.

Lukaku had had two at the time.

Unless he's loaned out to a good European team this year, the boy's wasting his time.

Also, I didn't see you post a list of Chelsea youth players playing for at least mid table premier league teams right now.

London has eight million inhabitants. Brussels has about a million. Liège has about 200.000. Genk has 66.000.

Let's see a list of young prospects that were at least partly formed by these three teams alone that have now regularly played in Europe (at least at Europa cup level): Lukaku, Musonda, Kompany, Januzaj, Praet, Thielemans, Kouyaté, Courtois, KDB, Defour, Benteke, Fellaini, Witsel, Mbokani, Carcela, Vanden Borre, Denayer, Ferreira-Carrasco, Mirallas, Origi, Chadli, Batshuayi... et cetera. I'm sure I forgot a couple. 15 years ago, we had practically no talents. Then we changed the system. Musonda of course hasn't, but would have, had he still been at Anderlecht.

All of these except Kompany and VDB were formed in the last ten years.

Where's your list?

World class academy? Yeah right, it's easy to have a world class academy when you have mountains of pounds to steal every talent that's out there.

I'm not even blaming Chelsea. This goes for every English top tier team. You have tons of money but no vision whatsoever.

Well the solution is very simple: The talents should stop coming to Chelsea for money and possible glory. You're very quick to throw the moral responsibility on the clubs but forget that the players come here more than willingly and they do so out of greed. Simple as, really.

[lionsden 4,689]

Maybe we should just focus on throwing large sums of money at the 22+ year old established players who are "viewed" as good enough and ready to contribute (notice I said "viewed" as perception is everything in football) instead of wasting money, time and effort on recruiting the best youth talents in Europe with absolutely zero plan and willingness to play them in the first team either immediately on in the future. It will be a massive shame to see the club waste massive talents like Musonda, Boga et al.

[Shakez 755]

What is his homegrown status? Thought i read somewhere that he still needs 1 more year.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

What is his homegrown status? Thought i read somewhere that he still needs 1 more year.

A player is considered homegrown by the FA if he spent at least 3 years between the age of 15 and 21 in an English or Welsh club.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

Well the solution is very simple: The talents should stop coming to Chelsea for money and possible glory. You're very quick to throw the moral responsibility on the clubs but forget that the players come here more than willingly and they do so out of greed. Simple as, really.

Of course. But if you grow up poor like many of these young guys in Brussels or Liège - a lot of them with foreign roots - getting a couple of millions and a carefree future is very difficult to resist. I think the next generation will be more careful. There are good examples of what you should not do around now, and they talk.

That said, of course the moral responsibility is on the clubs. They're the ones that are throwing the money at them. The moral responsibility of drug addiction lies on the dealers as well. ;-)

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Of course. But if you grow up poor like many of these young guys in Brussels or Liège - a lot of them with foreign roots - getting a couple of millions and a carefree future is very difficult to resist. I think the next generation will be more careful. There are good examples of what you should not do around now, and they talk.

That said, of course the moral responsibility is on the clubs. They're the ones that are throwing the money at them. The moral responsibility of drug addiction lies on the dealers as well. ;-)

But that's the thing, for all of those young players, they only have potential and with everyone of them there is a real chance that even if they stayed at their original clubs they won't actually achieve that potential, in which case they can only dream throughout their careers of the kind of sums they'd make here in a few years at youth level. They'd also enter a 'bracket' of wages that even if they failed here they'd still make a lot more than they would had they failed elsewhere.

That's why I find it very hard to feel sorry for those youth players as if they are victims in anyway.

[johnnythefirst 1,076]

But that's the thing, for all of those young players, they only have potential and with everyone of them there is a real chance that even if they stayed at their original clubs they won't actually achieve that potential, in which case they can only dream throughout their careers of the kind of sums they'd make here in a few years at youth level. They'd also enter a 'bracket' of wages that even if they failed here they'd still make a lot more than they would had they failed elsewhere.

That's why I find it very hard to feel sorry for those youth players as if they are victims in anyway.

Well, let's agree the biggest victim is world football then. ;-)