EskWeston

Nope, he was 20/21 when he joined us...

Called up for the full National team against England. Quite and achievment...... Bringing keepers through is tough, it is harder to get loans for them. Taylor, Sebek and Heimann are fighting it out for the reserves, with Turnbull getting some games as well. And Sam Walker and Aldi Haxhia in the youth team. I have to say that Taylor and Heimann don't particulary look like having what it takes to make it. Sebek has a lot of potential still and could possibly do very well. Sam Walker i havn't seen much of but he is a tall keeper for a young lad and looks to have decent ability. Haxhia i believe is only still around to make up the numbers. So i think to get in a keeper with this level of potential is a very good move, and i am sure they would have liked to have had him over immediately.

Can't believe we are still talking about "filling a void left by Jose"........ What a load of rubbish this is......

Chelsea is delighted to announce today (Thursday) that Ron Gourlay will be the new chief executive.Gourlay, who was previously the chief operating officer (COO) of the club, will succeed Peter Kenyon. 'It is a huge honour to be offered the chance to lead Chelsea,' said Gourlay. 'We have a fantastic team both on and off the field and those teams can move us onto even greater success in the future. 'To be responsible for that is a fantastic challenge and I will be giving it my total commitment, drive and energy. 'All successful clubs strike the balance between the footballing andcommercial sides and my role is to ensure this happens as it is acritical part of our strategy moving forward. 'We have great partners in Samsung, adidas, Etihad and many others.Together we will move our relationships onto the next level and developnew and exciting opportunities in other areas and with other companiesin key markets around the world.' Gourlay, 46, has been with Chelsea for five years, in a variety ofdirector level roles culminating in COO before today's appointment. Hehas more than 25 years experience in football having previouslyundertaken senior roles at Manchester United and Umbro. Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said: 'Ron was the outstanding candidatefor the job. It was not necessary to look outside as we had someonewith all the necessary attributes inside which was important as itensures continuity and a smooth transition. 'He has the total support of the Board and Roman and both the football and business elements of the club will report to him. 'Ron has been a central figure in the commercial success of Chelseain recent years and he has excellent operational experience and isthoroughly respected across the football side. 'We are absolutely confident that he can now take us forward into the next stage of our development as a club and business.' Source: Chelsea FC

Absolutely, i see Wenger is already moaning about it.

A tough game in tough conditions. But we come out with the 3 points. We looked a little lost without Drogba at times and i hope we can overcome that what with the ACN and the rest of his CL ban. Passing was poor in general some of which could be put down to the conditions. But i think we did enough to get the win and hopefully we can improve on this performance for Sunday and the rest of the CL group stage.

Whilst i think this is a good move, on the back on the potential transfer ban this could prove a problem. Also an interesting point to note is that whilst it says that we could boost our squad of 25 players with U21 players it doesn't say they have to be "homegrown" 1. Petr Cech 2. Hilario 3. Ross Turnbull (Homegrown) 4. Jose Bosingwa 5. Paulo Ferreira 6. Ashley Cole (Homegown) 7. Yuri Zhirkov 8. John Terry (Homegrown) 9. Ricardo Carvalho 10. Alex 11. Branislav Ivanovic 12. John Obi Mikel (Homegrown) 13. Michael Essien 14. Michael Ballack 15. Florent Malouda 16. Juliano Belletti 17. Nemaja Matic 18. Deco 19. Frank Lampard (Homegrown) 20. Joe Cole (Homegrown) 21. Didier Drogba 22. Nicolas Anelka 23. Soloman Kalou 24. Daniel Sturridge (Homegrown) 25. Sam Hutchinson (Homegrown) As our squad stands it does not even impact it at all. Plus we can boost our squad strength with plenty of young players, as in this season we are using potentiall Bruma, Borini and Kakuta

England's Premier League clubs have agreed new rules on the number of "home-grown" players in their squads.Fromnext season, each club will, at the end of every transfer window, haveto name at least eight "home-grown" players in a squad of 25. Toqualify as home grown, a player will have had to be registered for atleast three seasons at an English or Welsh club between the ages of 16and 21. In addition, clubs have been warned to adhere to new financial rules. Inagreeing to a quota on "home-grown" players from the beginning of the2010-11 season, Premier League clubs have been guided by Uefa'sinterest in the development of young players. "It will encourage youth development and the promotion of youngplayers," said Premier League chief Richard Scudamore. "It's a rulewhich we think will give clubs an extra incentive to develop players,and to make a better return from their investment in youth. "Make, rather than buy, is our intention." Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe welcomed the new rules. "Thesemoves will encourage clubs to develop and bring through young talentand help ensure clubs are financially stable," he said. "I ampleased the Premier League intend to impose tough sanctions on clubsthat take big financial risks that could threaten their future. Clubsmust be sustainable for the long-term health of the game in thiscountry." According to a recent poll from the ProfessionalFootball Players' Observatory, English clubs employ the highestproportion of expatriate players, with 59.2% coming from abroad. Liverpool have the highest percentage in Europe of expatriate players within their squad, measuring 90%. Inaddition, Chelsea were recently found guilty by Fifa of inducing GaelKakuta to break his contract with Lens in 2007 when he was 16 which hasopened up the debate on the tapping up of young talent. WhilstScudamore admits this ruling will not prevent clubs from recruitingyoung players from abroad, it will work towards reducing squad sizesand allow greater opportunities for young players to advance. "Theclubs will always go abroad and look," he commented. "The importantthing is are they looked after and is it done properly and I don'tthink we will stop that happening any more or any less because of thisrule. "I think it will reduce squad sizes, and stop the warehousing of players, if that is really what is going on." Under the new measures, clubs will be able to boost their squads beyond the 25 limit but only by players under the age of 21. ThePremier League's new financial rules - which were brought in on Monday- are similar to Uefa's current licensing guidelines, but differ inthat they are compulsory to clubs and punishment takes the form ofsanctions as opposed to outright exclusion from competition. Eachclub will have to provide its annual accounts to the Premier League by1 March every year, and show that it does not have outstanding taxdebts, or debts to other clubs. Clubs will also have to provethey can fulfil all fixtures and contractual obligations, and meet allpayments due during a season. As well as denying clubs theright to acquire new players under a transfer ban, the Premier Leaguecan also prevent them improving contracts with current players. "Itis absolutely essential that these clubs are run as viable, goingconcerns," added Scudamore. "We would far rather intervene than risk aclub going into administration. "The whole purpose of this is to protect the viability and sustainability of the clubs." Earlierthis month, Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie admitted that theclub almost went into administration, having lived "way outside itsmeans". At the end of August, Sulaiman Al Fahim completed his takeover atFratton Park but prior to that Pompey were forced to rely on otherclubs, agents and the Inland Revenue agreeing to allow a delay onpayments owed to them to keep the club afloat. But the newrules do stop short of Uefa president Michel Platini's "Financial FairPlay" proposals, which are due to be approved by Uefa's ExecutiveCommittee this week. These seek to limit clubs to spend onlywhat they earn from football-related income such as ticket sales andtelevision deals and punishments could include the banning of clubsfrom European competition. However, the new Premier League rules do not prevent clubs from amassing large amounts of debt, serviced by wealthy owners. Lastyear, Football Association chairman Lord Triesman warned of thepotential danger posed by what he cited at the time to be over £3bnworth of debt owed by English clubs, a third of which was accounted forby Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Chelseareported losses of £65.7m up to June last year, while Red Football,Manchester United's parent company which is owned by the Glazer family,recorded a £21m loss last year to increase their total debt to £575m. Liverpool'sAmerican owners recently renegotiated the club's debt with the RoyalBank of Scotland, believed to be £290m, and have extended it foranother year. But Scudamore defended the Premier League clubs' financial health. "Contraryto what many people think, the clubs from a financial point of view arewell run," he said. "They all have qualified accountants running them. "Theseclubs are extremely well regulated both in company law and certainlywhen you add our criteria and Uefa licensing on top. Source: BBC

Fabio Borini hit form big time last season and hasn't looked back since. Such a strong forward and WILL get goals. However he may not necesarilly be talking about Borini as he doesn't name him. Could be Jacapo Sala he is talking about.... although i am sure it IS Borini. It is great to hear that after spending time now at CFC he has seen enough of the Academy to give it the thumbs up in this way. Carlo has a great bunch of players to try and bring through and it certainly looks as though he is determined to do that. With so many players on loan, this season there is only a few of a chance of first team football, Hutchinson, Bruma, Borini and Kakuta. But next summer will be interesting to see how he deals with the players who have been on loan.

I agree, but it will more than likely be Kalou. Missing a lot of players for this game, the team picks itself. ................................Cech.................................... Ivan..............Carvalho.....Terry..................A.Cole ................................Mikel.................................... ................Essien.................Ballack..................... .............................Lampard................................. ......................Kalou..........Anelka........................ Subs: Hilario, Bruma, Hutchinson, Malouda, Belletti, Borini, Sturridge (Not too sure yet if Zhirkov is available or not) Still a very strong team that can more than definately do the job required.

Being 100% honest, do you believe Chelsea did anything wrong? If so was the punishment justifiable on the transfer ban? Honestly looking at the situation i can't see how we did anything wrong. Considering the legality of contracts to under 16's i can't see how anything Kakuta's old club had with him being legally binding as he was a minor. Secondly they are comparing a under age player with no pro contract to a situation with a player with a pro contract. So to answer, no i don't think we did anything legally wrong and even if we did the punishment does not fit the crime. A discussion on should players be allowed to transfer around europe before a certain age is a different matter. You obviously have a very strong squad atm, one of the strongest inEurope. Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years time when the main coreof your squad have got too old/moved on? The idea is to build something to be able to make the transition as smooth as possible. We have a group of younger first team players who will be the nucleous of our squad, players like Essien, Mikel, Ivanovic, Sturridge ect.. plus we have a LOT of young players lining up to show they can cut it for us. The sheer number of players we have out on loan shows that. Plus we will be dipping into the market to add strength to our squad so i don't see a major problem that a lot of our current key players are getting older. if u could sign two players from spurs who would they be? Obviously Defoe's scoring ability would interest any club. And i would love to bring back Cudicini. who do u consider to be your fiercest london rivals? If we are talking about who is the biggest threat to us then obviosuly it is Arsenal. But i think everyone would agree that the biggest derby game of the season for Chelsea fans is the Spurs game. are u happy with your manager or would u have preffered to keep gus hiddink? Initially i was dubious about Ancelotti but i have to say that the man has surpassed expectations. He is a very clever man who knows how to use his squad and is increbibly tactically astute. Hiddink was a top top manager and it would have been nice to keep him, but Ancelotti is more than ideal man to take over from Guus and i think Carlo will take us very far indeed. Do you see Tottenham as potential title challengers within the next 10 years? 10 years is a hell of a long time. Anything to potentially happen in that period. What i will say though is that the Spending that Tottenham have made over the last few years has gone pretty much unnoticed, and in Harry Redknapp have a very clever manager. Could he take Tottenham into the top 4 and keep them there? Possibly yes, but breaking into the top 4 is not an easy thing to do at all and i think the spurs squad needs a bit more tweaking especially at the back before they do that. are u concerned that abramovich may sell up someday in the near future and how do u think it would affect your club if he did? Nope, never have been concerned and never will be. Are Spurs fans worried their cash will dry up? Are Man Utd? The fact is that for the last 3 summers at least we have not spent big, Roman is not pumping the sort of regular money in now that he was to get us up to the top. So even IF he did leave we are able to cope, especially as there are no debts. who do u see as the dangermen for both teams this weekend? Didier is on fire again at the moment and will cause ANY teams problems. Lennon always seems to be one of those players who plays at their best against us and i am sure he will more than likely be the dangerman for us again. do u think man city will become a major force and challenge for league titles? If they keep spending the way that they are then it is inevitable. They have a very strong 11, but outside that at the moment it is a little flimsy. But you don't spend that sort of money and buy big name players without creating waves. How do you feel about the recent influx of cash-driven teams/players into the game (especially the EPL)? Money rules in all business. I have no problem seeing teams compete for top places. It can only make the league better. Players earn obscene ammounts of money, but if they didn't would we the fans benefit from the club keeping that money? I don't think so. As long as clubs are not getting themselves into debt that could potentially send them under then i don't see too much wrong. what are your opinions on harry redknapp and his management style? I have always liked Harry, and i felt he never got the credit he deserved. To call him a "wheeler dealer" is a bit harsh because he is a top manager, he has done wonders at the various clubs he has been at and i am sure he can take spurs a long way if backed in the right way. where do u predict spurs and Chelsea will end up in the league table this season? Sitting here right now i have a very very good feeling that we will win the league this season, we just look like we mean business this season, in the same way you could feel it the last 2 times we won the league. Spurs i think will finish 5th or 6th, top six will include Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City and Spurs, not in that order. what is your prediction for the match? Both teams are feeling very confident but i think we will come out on top. I predicted a 3 - 1 win for us earlier and i will stick by that. But i think it will be a very good game with plenty to talk about.

Good to see Borini finally added to the B list, suprised he wasn't on there in the first place. The lad knows how to score goals and i would love to see him get an oppertunity to come on and have a crack at the first team.

Was very chuffed that managed to get the win in the end. Stoke are an absolute horrible team, full of cloggers and hoofers, have not seen anything like these spoiling tactics for a very long while, but was very glad that we overcome in the end. The bloody link i was watching the game on went down just before the winner which was bloody frustrating, switched over to Soccer Saturday to see the goal pop up on there and went bloody mental.

Did we even ask them? FIFA are a bunch of f**kers and are just making in very clear they just plain don't like us..... This season i doubt we would be recalling anyone anyway.. If Mancienne has a clause then we can recall him, we still hold the players registration so there is nothing FIFA can do! Yes as in normal circumstances if the player is on loan for a year without a break clause then we can't recall them.

According to the BBC website Patrick Van Aanholt is out for 3 to 4 weeks with a groin strain. Always dissapointing to see these on loan players pick up injuries, it hampers their progress and means they get less games. Hopefully he will get straight back into things once he recovers.

Hmmm, current faves are: Lost Smallville Lie To Me Dollhouse Bones Family Guy South Park

Stoke can be a tricky team to play. But hopefully we can keep up our level of possesion and chances up.

Good to see Hiddink back around the place. Would be good to see him have some sort of involvement with us in the future as well

A couple of injuries hampered him, but he just hasn't really kicked on to the next level. Practically missed out the reserves altogether, only playing a couple of games.

Could somone move this to the reserves and youth section so i can merge it with the Taiwo loan discussion thread.... It wouldn't suprise me to see Taiwo make a permenant move at the end of this season, i certainly don't think we will be seeing him play for Chelsea.

I like Jack Cork very much, and i think he is a little unlucky to not be given a go in the first team this season. I am sure he will make it though because he is a very level headed young man with a lot of ability.

It is ludicrous to even consider likening this to child trafficking.... FIFA are a useless and corrupt organisation and they are going to be made to look like fools over this...

Cummings, Sarelma and Furman are not longer with the club. But Cummings and Furman have gone on to decent levels, no idea where Sarelma is though.... This is a key point because only a very small percentage will make it to our first team, and the aim is to get the rest at as high a level as possible and make the academy some money back, we have done that with Nouble and Cummings this summer. Of the rest of the list that stev3o did i would say that Sawyer, Bridcutt and Taylor have very little chance of a future at CFC, the rest all have some degree of possibility. Our academy is working, and right now we are the start of where it is working perfectly, players on top loans, a player here and there in our first team and selling players on for a profit if they are not going to make it with us. This is the essense of an academy and it won't be long before we have a first team regular from our academy.

Joe and Paulo were involved in another friendly, this time against Fulham which finished 1 - 1. Ahamed scoring our goal. Fereira played the full 90 and Joe completed 60 mins.

In the fallout of the Gael Kakuta saga Chelsea's Academy has come under serious fire. More so than normal as it has been something that the media in particular find it easy to poke fun at Chelsea for, a couple of the worst articles are listed below, they are full of rubbish opinion and completely lacking in fact and judgement: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/05/Chelsea-youth-football http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2009/09/oliver-kay-the-final-word-on-chelseas-youth-academy.html Chelsea's academy was effectively set up in 2005, before that it was basically neglected. We currently have 12 young players out on loan at various clubs and are making big impressions. In 2005 we took a youth team to Ireland to compete in the milk cup, that team consisted of: Rhys Taylor, Ryan Bertrand, Sam Hutchinson, Michael Mancienne, Jack Cork, Liam Bridcutt, Dean Furman, Lee Sawyer, Tomi Sarelma, Shaun Cummings, Scott Sinclair Of that team 3 have appeared for our first team. 1 is currently a part of our first team squad. 2 are playing regular in the Premier League on loan, 3 are playing in the Championship regulary (2 on loan, 1 permenantly now) and 2 play in League 1 on loan. Rhys Taylor is involved with the first team heavily also. Only 2 have left the club previously and Furman has made a decent career and is now at Oldham i think. So the question is, what is the TalkChelsea Chelsea fan view on the Academy? Is it a success or a failure so far in your eyes? Do we deserve the negative press we have on our academy or not?