EskWeston

As the games draw on we will a see a more regular team come together. Terry, Cole, Meireles and Torres need more minutes still to catch up. Have been very impressed with both Hazard and Marin so far, gives us the options we have been missing.

It has been another busy week at the Chelsea academy, with pre-season match action, players leaving on loan and some new faces to meet. Starting with the match action the U18’s had their first pre-season game on Saturday morning against Torquay. They started their pre-season in style too by winning the game 12 – 1. With a game with that many goals there was obviously plenty of players on the scoresheet Houghton, Seremba, Figuera x 2, Boga, Rodriquez, Kandi x 3, Cole, Musonda and Ssewankambo. With basically a different team each half there was plenty of players on display including new boys Columbian Joao Rodriquez and Belgian Charly Musonda whose arrival was widely reported and tipped to be a big star. An hour later it was the turn of the U21’s team to get their season underway with a game against Northwood FC. The U21’s not being able to generate the same number of goals ended this match with a 0 – 0 draw. Again there were a large number of players used across the two halves and again there were some new faces to be seen. Ivorian brothers Vincent (Goalkeeper 27) and Victorien (Midfielder 18) Angban were joined by another pair of brothers Tika (Midfielder 18) and Lamisha (Midfielder 20) Musonda, older brothers of Charly. It was also the first game in Chelsea blue for Andreas Christensen who joined up this summer. The last match action of the week was back with the U18’s who played out a friendly at Cobham against London rivals Arsenal on Friday. In an exciting game with good football that bounced one way then the other it eventually finished with a 3 – 2 win for Arsenal. Chelsea’s goals both scored by Joao Rodriquez. The U18’s will be in action again on Saturday against Bristol City before they fly out to Asia for a couple more friendly games. In other news two young blues have moved to Portugal for the season and joined up with Vitoria Guimaraes. Exciting winger Milan Lalkovic will be hoping this loan will be the chance he needs to play regular first team football in a strong league. Joining him is Matej Delac, the young goalkeeper who has struggled to find a place to play football. Again it is strongly hoped that he will get the playing time he needs to develop himself after a long period of time without regular football. Stepping to first team level and the first game of pre-season in America against the Seattle Sounders. A number of young players were involved throughout. In the first half Nathaniel Chalobah started in a somewhat unfamiliar position of right back and Josh McEachran started alongside Mikel in a midfield two. Other than a sloppy pass which allowed Seattle to score Josh was very composed and played a good game setting up Romelu Lukaku for his first and Nathaniel Chalobah put in a good showing too. In the second half there was more involvement, Sam Hutchinson, Todd Kane, George Saville, Gael Kakuta, and Lucas Piazon all saw time on the pitch and all played well, especially Todd Kane and Lucas Piazon who both managed to look like they still playing in the reserves and not looking a little nervous. There is plenty more to come from the academy this summer even before the season kicks off. As I write this it would appear that the U21’s squad numbers will be increased even more with the imminent arrival of another brother, this time the brother of new signed Eden Hazard. Younger brother Thorgan is a player in a similar mould to Eden but not at the same level, moving from Lens to join up with his brother he will hoping to make an impact and improve to join Eden in the first team. Click here to view the article

Lets not blow a comment out of all proportion. Of course he was gutted to have not got on the pitch. But RDM will have had his reasons and him not playing in that game is going to have zero bearing in how his CFC career goes from here. The lad has only been here about 6 months.....

I think it pretty obvious that there will be some more players moving on this summer. We are putting together a very decent squad though i think,

Eden has a partner and a child, not too sure if the signing is to do with company. Having Eden on board just makes it easier for us to sign a player that was of interest to us....

That is quite a big assumption, we have no idea as to the level of Eden's involvement.

Robbie could decide to go without a recognised centre forward, like he did for the final part of yesterdays game. It all depends on how they see the fitness of the players. They will not run the risk of injury for any reason in pre season games. No matter what team goes out there though it is going to be a cracking game in the Yankee stadium...

It may be a big team, but the priority is to manage the players fitness. Those who played 60 minutes yesterday are unlikely to start this game.

Another deal that looks like it is done, probably wouldn't expect any official announcement, will probably just see him playing in the next U21's game. Like i said before, he may not be the best talent, but we need a bigger U21's squad for the coming season and it gives us the oppertunity to try and develop him more into a better player. From what i understand the raw talent is there in him.

It would seem that everyone knows that the deal is done, not sure why there is a holdup in announcing the deal. There is obviously a reason though. Hope it gets announced sooner rather than later.

Would expect an almost reversal of the teams for the seattle game. The players with less minutes against seattle to get more against PSG. Should be a tough game, but both teams at the same level of pre season.

This game was an excellent workout for the lads involved. Some really nice forward movement all through the game. Can never expect too much this early in pre season but this game was played at a very good tempo and will have done the players the world of good. Thought our weakest players were Benayoun who just could not get himself involved in the game enough and Ferreira who was constantly out of position and not tracking players. Everyone else did well. Thought Josh looked good despite the poor pass for their first goal. Marin and Hazard were really lively and i am looking forward to seeing more of that through the season. Lukaku looked good, strong and composed, better with his hold up play as the game went on. De Bruyne should excellent flashes but was trying a little too hard. Best young player of the game for me was Todd Kane when he came on, does what he does best, gets up and down that left flank and gets the ball in, even one trademark long drive at goal. Piazon looked class and composed when he came on too. All in all a very positive performance, PSG a much bigger hurdle in the next game though....

Yup, seems well done and dusted. Would expect the usual announcement on the 5pm Blues news...... A very exciting signing this one......

Surely though if we loan out Lukaku we have to sign another forward or we are too short? And then that is not helping Lukaku's cause at all as it is only another player in his way.....

Kakuta will not go on loan again. He has stated that he will either stay at CFC or leave the club for good.

With all the buzz of transfer activity around the club at the moment it is always easy forget that we have restrictions on what we are able to do with the squad under the Premier League homegrown rule. We have to work with a squad of 25 players plus an unlimited number of players under the age of 21. Of that 25 players 8 of them have to be homegrown. As things stand this is the squad we have under these guidelines: 1.(HG): John Terry 2.(HG): Ashley Cole 3.(HG): Frank Lampard 4.(HG): Ross Turnbull 5.(HG): Daniel Sturridge 6.(HG): Ryan Bertrand 7.(HG): Gary Cahill 8.(HG): Sam Hutchinson 9. Petr Cech 10. Branislav Ivanovic 11. Michael Essien 12. Mikel 13. Florent Malouda 14. Paulo Fereira 15. Hilario 16. Yossi Benayoun 17. Ramires 18. David Luiz 19. Fernando Torres 20. Oriol Romeu 21. Juan Mata 22. Kevin De Bruyne 23. Raul Meireles 24. Eden Hazard 25. Marko Marin Gael Kakuta U21 Players: 1. Romelu Lukaku 2. Lucas Piazon 3. Josh McEachran 4. Jamal Blackman 5. (Oscar) So as things stand we are right on our limit of the squad we can have, and if we want to use Gael Kakuta this year we need to make space for him, not to mention any further signings we could make. Although there are players who could easily (likely) still move on, Malouda or Benayoun for example.

With the changes that have been made with U21's and U18's football the club want to work with larger groups at both levels. So why not bring someone in with potential to work with that group and see how he can do.

Well this looks like it is going to happen then. I am always extremely happy to see us sign exciting young forwards with tons of ability. Cannot wait for this season to kick off...

Same as Eden, mainly a number 10 but can operate out wide...

Yup, i like the idea of a fluid 3 behind Torres and it would be an amazing 3 to have too, young and gifted.

Seems a talented young player. And we are in the habbit at the moment of bringing in family of players we have signed, Angban brothers playing for the U21's on Saturday as well as 2 of the 3 Musonda brothers with the other playing for the U18's....

Signing a striker will effectively mean we have completely given up on Lukaku and/or Sturridge. And i certainly don't think we should give up on either. Stick with Torres, Sturridge and Lukaku is what i would do.

A lot of the players are on different schedules of fitness. Some players (those at the euros) are not even with the squad yet. And others joined up later, like Lampard, Ramires and Luiz. The majority of the starting 11 will be players who had started pre season from the beginning and there will more than likely be a different team for each half. This will also be the game where we are most likely to see the youngsters play in.

As always it has been a busy week in the Chelsea FC Academy. Pre-season training has been well under way with a number of young players joining in with the first team training sessions due to the small squad while players are still coming back. The biggest news of the week involves a number of loan moves. Tomas Kalas and Patrick Van Aanholt have both gone back to our unofficial link up club Vitesse Arnhem. Both spent time there last season with different results. Tomas Kalas had a very successful loan and impressed everyone while Patrick Van Aanholt had mixed results during his time there. Both will be looking to have big seasons and come back to Chelsea next season to push for places in the first team squad. On top of that Tomas Kalas has signed a new contract with Chelsea which ties him to the club until 2017. Two more loan moves have also happened. Firstly U21’s player Rohan Ince has joined Yeovil Town on loan for 6 months. Rohan is a big strong lad who will find himself well able to cope with the football in League 1, injuries have hampered him development at Chelsea and I would imagine that this loan move will be with a view to find a club for him permanently at the end of the season when his current contract runs out. Also joining the ranks of players going on loan is Mexican attacking midfielder Ulises Davilla. Davilla is moving to the Spanish second division with CE Sabadell, he will be looking to play as many games as possible and acclimatise to European football and hopefully work his way back into the Mexican national team to make his work permit application go through. As always with Chelsea loanees we wish them all the best. The Chelsea first team are making their way to America now to take part in their pre-season tour and it would seem that a number of academy players have gone with them. Todd Kane, Lucas Piazon, George Saville, Patrick Bamford and Jamal Blackman all seem to be on the plane off the states. Due to the delayed nature of players returning to pre-season it is always an opportunity for young players to make a statement in the first game(s) of pre-season. Again we look forward to seeing what they can do out there. Nathaniel Chalobah was in England action at the U19’s Euros and made it to the semi final stage being beaten by Greece. Chalobah was played in an unfamiliar position of right back for most of the tournament and England will feel they could have done better but it all very good experience for the young Chelsea man. The football finally returns this weekend for the academy with the U18’s kicking things off with a game at Cobham against Torquay United, kick off at 12:00pm and then later in the day at 3:00pm the U21’s get their pre-season started with an away game at Northwood FC. Details of the games will be in next week’s review, hopefully both groups will get things off to a positive start. Click here to view the article

I agree, but there is a lot of media pressure already for the FA to do something. And the FA are great at bowing to media and public pressure.