sarthur

Completely sensible opinion, he got some playing time because we had no squad, he wasn't loaned out becasue he's not big enough to cope with that worload yet, he's in a deeper role because he can get on the ball there. He played 10 against Arsenal in Youth game and got marked tight and clobbered, same would happen for 1st team so people need to praise the staff for giving him a chance. He was lucky to come along when lots of injuries and he's getting bags of playing time, just not with 1st team. I think he'll spend at least first 6 months doing the same, ealry loan would be too soon still.

We "sign" kids this age all the time, just rarely gets any press as parents and clubs usually keep quiet about it. So, he's probably a bit bigger or faster than the other kids that age and he sticks out a bit, especially in Northampton. The amounts talked about here are the same every club pays to another academy to compensate for its development efforts over the years. Kaby was a wonderkid, Michael Woods, Tom Taiwao, Scott Sinclair and they were bought years later for millions. All big clubs sift through as much talent for as little as they can get it and hope to find a diamond. What I'm impressed about with the Chels is that we do seem to look after our own and make sure kids who don't make it find somewhere, Ryan Bertrand case in point from his nice commenst about the club letting him train to keep fit while he was looking for a club. Sorry, gone off on a tangent there!

Agree. Off topic we can also see that there were actually 6 English pro deals given in the summer, Josh, Billy Clifford, Rohan Ince and James Ashton have all been at the club from Under 8's or 9's, Aziz Dean-Conteh and George Saville a few years later. JT was 14 when he turned up so we could have a bright set of real homegrowns coming through. Ince has just come back from injury and is big enough to handle himself, Clifford we saw on the bench already, Ashton hardly played at all last year but is close to fitness and touted to be right up there, Aziz is a beast and is progressing in the reserves and Saville is starting to sprout and you can see his technique is excellent and is now showing through. and that's all in the youth team. Chuck in Mills-Pappoe, Chalobah, Rodgers, Blackman, Lalkovic and Prosenik and we might even retain the Youth Cup as well. Overall the future is bright, the future is Blue!! On Josh v Wilshere, JW has massive man's legs already so can cope physically more. We like to big up the first decent kid we see but the depth is as good as l'Arse I think, don't think age is a good scale of how good the player will be, just how quickly they grew when they were young. Wouldn't say Mills is better than Saville just because one is in the reserves.

Main disappointment was (no offense) wasting two places on the bench as a treat to a couple of youngsters who weren't going to play when the likes of Mikel, Essien or even Drogba could have sat and watched knowing they are there in an emergency, like tonight. Saving grace was Josh getting more minutes than he would have so some silver lining but now no more CC for the kids to play in and very few minutes for them for the rest of the season.

You think he's another member of the "he's fast so must be good" club?

Never thought I'd read that!! Must be bad!

Time for some congrats with his debut last night. Big moment and good news that we're prepared to give these guys some minutes, getting a taste of travelling and being part of the squad and getting on the pitch is icing on the cake. Wrong thread but who's next????

Great show of mental strength, only last year he was suspended for doing a Shrek and now making his debut, old head on young shoulders, good man!! :-)) Quality left foot will be around for a long while to come, hope to see him in CC as well.

Druumy against Coventry... 'It was a really tough away game,' said youth team manager Dermot Drummy. ''There was a lot of tackles and it wasn't a very flowing game but the boys are competing, so I am pleased with the performance.' Maybe it's just the opposition sending out bigger lads but I would have expected more considering the team we had out was a lot stronger. I remember a game against Fulham when they just put out half a team of massive kids just to get a result against Chelsea so I guess it's no surprise.

All fair coments, thanks. Just getting an uneasy feeling, don't know why. With regards to last year we lost nearly every away game and won most at home it was strange season. What about this year's Youth Cup team, I'm looking forward to it. We'll miss Bruma and maybe C Clifford and Tore but I think with the boys all a year older, Ince fully fit and Ashton back soon as well it should be even stronger than last years team.

Fair comment but Jose was working with the finished articles and class usually shined through in those games, a little bit of quality. Dermot wan't just pleased, he said it was the "best thing". These are the next breed of pros, who should be passing round bigger but technically limited teams. We should not be satisfied with a goalless draw against Sheffield Wednesday. You'll get this happen when you push your bigger, faster players into the ressies, leaving the smaller technical players behind so you should be concentrating on developing this, not trying to match the other team. and how many times do we read "Milan Lalkovic almost converted a fine individual run but shot just wide"? That could be from any game. Technique under pressure is missing and will just get worse as the pressure builds. It says Wednesday were a more experienced team. We had 4 pros, 3 more second year scholars, Blackman's massive and the 3 other schoolboys have all played up before as well so we shouldn't really use size as an excuse. Anyway wasn't just about this game, I'm just seeing a theme and with this year's Youth squad arguably better we should be retaining the trophy this year so we'll see how that goes.

Was going to start a new topic but here will do, the comment from Dermot Drummy sums up why I don't think he's right for this age group. 'We had three or four good chances but the best thing was, they were very physical but we matched them mentally, and didn't pull out of any tackles,' said coach Dermot Drummy. The best thing was we all got stuck in? he shouldn't be satisfied at leading the next group of potential pros of the club (4 actual pros) to only handling themselves in a game. I've seen him before shouting and screaming at people who miss tackles and keeping quiet at a quality bit of technique. Needs to get his priorities straight as the kids will still grow in size but not technically if they are busy sliding about on their backsides trying to please the gaffer. With his size he seems that he was the type of player who put himself about but do we want that over technique? Before people start on about winning the Youth Cup my Nan could have got that squad through so I don't think he can claim to be too much of a master tactician for that. I find it amazing that the club celebrate winning what is basically the FA Cup over the equivalent league record. I know the teams put their best out for the youth cup (apart from L'Arse) but this group is very technical and should be playing around big physical teams. Esk, sorry to steal this thread for a minor rant but you got any thoughts on Drummy?

Point taken but you said "vs teams such as Wigan why not start McEachran with Lampard?", so, with Wigan away this weekend and Wilshere starting last weekend as your comparison I don't think I misunderstood completely, it seemed quite clear with what you said, or did you mean next season? tbh playing against the first team players in training will give them some kind of idea of the physical limits they have. Like you, I'm looking forward to the day they do give them a go though : ))

He's been with us since he was 9 so the club would have covered all of his treatment. Just too many operations and clearly the thought was that he just wouldn't be able to cope with professional sport. Best of luck, seems like one of the good guys and Chelsea look after their own.

Surely, you're kidding, START with McEachran? Wilshire has the legs of a full grown man, despite his lack of height and it was mostly his fault Arsenal went one down. He did nothing exceptional that any other Arsenal player couldn't have done, shuffling the ball around the midfield. He's also played most of last season with Bolton getting Prem experience. Josh just got called into the U19's off the back of his 17's efforts, Wilshire just got his first full cap. I wish people would ignore the actual age of the youth players and look at their physical capabilities. Josh has got as far as he has by being left-footed as much as anything, as well as being technically capable obviously. He's not big or fast enough yet, not a Lennon, Wright-Phillips, Richards or Walcott. Sure he'll probably get some game time cause Chelsea need to be "seen" to be pushing a home-grown talent like him through. We have a large amount of talent coming through but it takes time and is more miss than hit. Technically we have much better players, maybe they are just not big enough yet. Surely you'd throw Matic in there first or does he have to be "home-grown" like Fabregas??