EskWeston

Fantastic news for the club to tie him down to 4 years, he has an excellent oppertunity to play games this season and the lad has serious talent. Will grow into a very important player for us i have no doubt. I am sure Bruma is very pleased also to have signed a new contract. Lets hope he really kicks on this season and does well whenever given te chance (please don't play him at right back though Carlo)

Absolutely spot on, this squad is designed to give our most talented youngsters real chances of playing a good number of games. We no longer have players who are average to stop them getting games, we have an exceptionally strong squad of experienced players supplimented with a group of 5 top class youngsters. You can never please everyone thats for sure, but we should look at this squad and be pleased.. With the number of versatile players we have i can't see us struggling unless we have real crippling injury problems, which you can never prepare for.

If he continues to get the games then he should definately stay, competitive games are crucial for a young keeper.

Will be a good move for him if he gets the games there, ideal move for him and us..

Yes very glad it's over, although we couldn't go through even a relatively quiet window without some drama could we???

Not too much wrong with how we have gone about things this summer, we have a very good squad of 25 players with lots of versatile players and top class players with a sprinkling to youth and quality youth too. Similar of youngsters on loan to last season at the moment, loans seem to be a negative at the moment, the players kept on have not been out on loan (other than Van Aanholt). Got rid of the right players at the right time also and cut a massive wedge off our wage bill.

Hit the nail on the head. We are seriously struggling to bring youngsters through this club. Di Santo was quality when he came, scoring lots of goals for the reserves. Then as was said was poorly managed, always taken away from reserve games for first team involvement and then never got the minutes, basically spent a whole season with about a dozen games worth of minutes, sent on loan to a club that brought in strikers on permenant deals at the same time, but the worst thing was extending that loan, shocking choice. We are not doing the confidence of our young players at the moment, even those who have had very successful loan spells (Mancienne, Cork and Bertrand) can't even get a look in. The club seem to have a lot of confidence in the group in the first team at the moment (Kakuta, Borini, Van Aanholt, Bruma and McEachran) and the ones below that, but seem to have written off the older ones already.

Will certainly still be a strong team, a lot of players still eligable to play, Josh will have a key role in it for sure.

I had my reservations about Drummy in the past for sure, but i think he is settling into the role much better. He has the teams playing good football and we did well in the league last season as well as the FA Youth Cup. In this game the point that was being made i feel was that Wednesday will have fielded a side that was as old as possible, whereas at Chelsea we are playing with younger players as we have moved a number of eligable players onto the reserves already. Also a lot of clubs still will take the role of picking the bigger physical specimins for their academy's rather than focus on technique. We see it with the first team that you HAVE to be able to deal with a physical match as well as be able to to pass the ball well with good skill, we do not want to be Arsenal who play well but crumble when given a bit of a tough time. At this age level it is even harder if their is an age gap and a physical gap, that closes with time but it is important that the boys are able to cope with a physical game from bigger boys. I can see what Drummy is saying in this game. But i do take your point in some ways as i was sceptical of Drummy, at the moment though i think he is doing well and developing the boys well enough.

Chelsea's youths ground out a hard-earned goalless draw at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. Dermot Drummy's side were up against a more experienced and bigger Owls side, but battled well to earn a point on a difficult away day. In the first half, Jamal Blackman pulled off a fantastic save to keep the scores level, palming a long-range effort up and over the bar. Chelsea's best chance fell to Bobby Devyne, who saw his close-range effort cleared off the line. Philipp Prosenik also had a couple of chances, and towards the end of the game Milan Lalkovic almost converted a fine individual run but shot just wide. '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. 'They were really good the boys, they had to stay switched on. Sheffield Wednesday were very physical and we had to match them for that with a really good team ethic, and that's what we did.' Chelsea: Jamal Blackman, Toddy Kane, Archange Nkumu, Aziz Deen-Conteh, Ben Sampayo, Anton Rodgers, George Saville, Danny Stenning, Milan Lalkovic, Bobby Devyne, Philipp Prosenik. Schoolboy Nathaniel Chalobah has represented England Under 17s twice in the last week, first as a 72nd minute substitute in the 2-2 draw with Turkey on Wednesday, and then as a starter in the 4-0 win over Australia on Friday, when he was replaced just before half-time. Source: Chelsea FC

Would have been nice to get a lower league team to give the youngsters a run out, but a home game against Newcastle is a decent enough draw for us.

I really don't think that we have to worry about the young players getting chances this season. With 5 youngsters included in our squad of 25 somewhere along the line they will have to get the chances to get playing time, we are very early in the season and there is no need to rush things and play them just for the sake of it, but clearly Bruma, Borini, Van Aanholt, Kakuta and to a lesser extent Josh McEachran will get a good number of games this season. I think we will see the Carling Cup used to give them games as well.

Good win in the end, Stoke set out to just limit the damage which made it hard for us, wasn't even really playing for the draw. We still had some good chances to score more so all in all we are still playing very well indeed. At the moment we look so strong.

Would most likely be Benayoun i would think, although Malouda would be a good option. I think a midfiled of Mikel, Essien and Ramires would be OK but need someone a bit more attack minded.

They will get their chances, they will have to with the size of our squad. Kakuta would have had chances i am sure but his injury has put that on hold.

Extended Highlights:

Well it most certainly looks like we are making up our 25 by using young players. Very brave move for sure, but one that will give the youngsters involved a lot of confidence. Our squad is very strong and has players capable of covering a number of positions. Our U21 list will really be players like Clifford, Sala, Tore ect... who could be drafted in if there is an emergency or if Carlo feels he wants to give them a game.

I think we can be very pleased with this draw, couldn't have asked for a much better one really and will our campaign in the CL that much easier.

Our cover is dwindling all the time now, we have a squad of 20 now with 5 under 21's. It is either a massive show of faith for the young players or we are about to bring more bodies in. Mancienne could have covered a number of roles and it would't have meant stopping the development of other players, with our squad size there would have been games to have gone around.

Does he have to be world class though? Would have a very good squad utility player, cover for centre back, right back and holding midfield. Not every player that comes through can be a first team regular starter, we can use our youngsters for squad players also.

I actually thought he would stay after Sam retired. Going to lower our squad even more now, been a strange summer this season. Even though it doesn't look likely i would be very very suprised if we didn't make anymore signings now.

Depends, do you mean the full 90 minutes? Highlights can be found here for every game: My Youtube page don't think there is anywhere that has the full games

Possibly could do with another midfielder yes, but if he stays (as i think he will now) Mancienne can play in the midfield holding role, as he has done for Wolves.

I guess the question is, we have the space for 4 players, 2 home grown and 2 foreign. Do we need them? Centre backs, Terry, Alex, Ivanovic, Mancienne, Bruma Midfielders: Lampard, Mikel, Essien, Ramires, Benayoun Forwards: Drogba, Anelka, Malouda, Kalou, Sturridge What we have is players able to play a number of positions, Zhirkov and Malouda can play on the wing or in midfield. Anelka and Sturridge play the CF role and on the wings. Benayoun can play out wide if needed. Plus the youngsters to drop in as and when. We could certainly cope with the squad as we have it now.

Another revival of this thread as things stand: 1.(HG): John Terry 2.(HG): Ashley Cole 3.(HG): Frank Lampard 4.(HG): Ross Turnbull 5.(HG): Daniel Sturridge 6.(HG): Michael Mancienne 7.(HG): 8.(HG): 9. Petr Cech 10. Branislav Ivanovic 11. Michael Essien 12. Didier Drogba 13. Mikel 14. Florent Malouda 15. Jose Bosingwa 16. Yuri Zhirkov 17. Paulo Fereira 18. Salomon Kalou 19. Alex 20. Nicolas Anelka 21. Hilario 22. Yossi Benayoun 23. Ramires 24. 25. U21 Players: 1. Jeffrey Bruma 2. Patrick Van Aanholt 3. Gael Kakuta 4. Fabio Borini 5. Josh McEachran So we are effectively playing with a squad of 21 players supplimented by 5 U21's who do not need to be included in the squad list. Are we looking a little light? Does the departure of Matic signal another arrival. Time is running out on transfers now.