Nathan Aké

[CHOULO19 24,332]

He's a nice little player and will have a decent future, but I haven't seen anything that gets me excited at all. The best prospect in our academy? No way. Boga, Loftus-Cheek, Christensen are all better prospects imo.

Where does his future lie anyway? He plays CB for the youth/reserve teams but played DM for the first team. Imo, he should stick to CB. He has great technical ability and reads the game well. He's small for a CB right now, but he's only young so he has plenty time to bulk up.

His technique and technical is on whole different level than all of those you mentioned. You don't get to become the captain of the Netherlands youth NT unless you're a top prospect. Why do you think we picked Nathan and not RLC to join the first team last year when we needed a DM when both are the same age?

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

He's a nice little player and will have a decent future, but I haven't seen anything that gets me excited at all. The best prospect in our academy? No way. Boga, Loftus-Cheek, Christensen are all better prospects imo.

Where does his future lie anyway? He plays CB for the youth/reserve teams but played DM for the first team. Imo, he should stick to CB. He has great technical ability and reads the game well. He's small for a CB right now, but he's only young so he has plenty time to bulk up.

His future is definitely at CB i'd say.

As for the best prospect, I don't know how you compare the potential of a young CB to that of a young attacker or a central midfielder, but the club rate him very highly, and rightly so.

[The only place to be 11,313]

waste of a talent if he stays here... with our mid already jam-packed with the linkes of rambo, mikel, essien, mvg, lamps, cant see him getting a moment of first team action. should go out on loan.

League cup, FA Cup, group games in the CL....that's maybe a dozen games, plus he'll probably get a lot of time on the bench in league games. His versatility will be an advantage too.

It would appear as though Jose simply hasn't seen enough of him to make a decision though, so why not keep him around for a few months? There's still a chance to move on in the January window, but he has time on his side. The odd young prospect filling in on the occasional matchday isn't the worst thing to have around. I don't think he's the strongest prospect in our academy but he's a tidy young player who showed against Everton that he has something to offer as a midfielder.

[olivertwist 23]

This kid plays with maturity and composure far above his years. He's one of my favourite chelsea youth players. personally I think the loan system is overrated and isn't and should never be the only strategy in place for youth development and integration as there are many variables that could impact a player's development on loan such as limited playing time and the loan club manager's motivation to do what's best for his team rather than the player as they have no incentive to develop a player for another team to benefit from which leads to mismanagement of some of these players. many clubs have proven that there are other method or strategy equally as effective in developing and integrating youth players into the first team.

AS Roma- Totti, De rossi,

Barcelona- Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol et al

Madrid- Raul, Guti, Hiero

Bayern- Bastian

Liverpool- Gerrard, Carragher, Owen.

None of those top players went out on loan and I'm sure there are plenty more example. This mentality that youngsters can only be developed through the loan system is just not true. it depends on how they are handled and the amount of trust shown in them. that's the bottomline. trust and commitment.

[didierforever 7,349]

League cup, FA Cup, group games in the CL....that's maybe a dozen games, plus he'll probably get a lot of time on the bench in league games. His versatility will be an advantage too.

It would appear as though Jose simply hasn't seen enough of him to make a decision though, so why not keep him around for a few months? There's still a chance to move on in the January window, but he has time on his side. The odd young prospect filling in on the occasional matchday isn't the worst thing to have around. I don't think he's the strongest prospect in our academy but he's a tidy young player who showed against Everton that he has something to offer as a midfielder.

no way. this season is not like the previous one. i mean we have 5 players for the pivot position - rambo, mvg, mikel, essien, lamps. i simply cant see him start in the mid for us. in the defense we ve got 5 players who can play as cb, cant see him start there as well. we have got a strong and brilliant squad of 25 players and i simply cant see ake getting any time at all. maybe a game in some bullshit dead rubber towards the end of the season when we would have wrapped up the league ( ), but apart from that cant even see him on the bench. i mean lets say our starting 11 be cech; azpi, jt, dl, ac; rambo, essien; mazacar; lukaku... the bench would be something like schwarzer, ba, kdb, schurlle, lamps, cahill, iva. with the likes of torres, moses, mvg, mikel, bert, kalas still in the reserves. simply cant see him being a part of the first team.

i personally feel that we should not even waste 3-4 months with this guy. send him out on loan and give him a chance of doing what chalobah did with watford last season.

[ja1 1,166]

This kid plays with maturity and composure far above his years. He's one of my favourite chelsea youth players. personally I think the loan system is overrated and isn't and should never be the only strategy in place for youth development and integration as there are many variables that could impact a player's development on loan such as limited playing time and the loan club manager's motivation to do what's best for his team rather than the player as they have no incentive to develop a player for another team to benefit from which leads to mismanagement of some of these players. many clubs have proven that there are other method or strategy equally as effective in developing and integrating youth players into the first team.

AS Roma- Totti, De rossi,

Barcelona- Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol et al

Madrid- Raul, Guti, Hiero

Bayern- Bastian

Liverpool- Gerrard, Carragher, Owen.

None of those top players went out on loan and I'm sure there are plenty more example. This mentality that youngsters can only be developed through the loan system is just not true. it depends on how they are handled and the amount of trust shown in them. that's the bottomline. trust and commitment.

Messi, Xavi, Puyol, Guti, Raul and Scweinsteiger all had the luxury of 'B' teams, which obviously we can't use. Hierro had made 60 appearances for Valladolid by the time he joined Madrid. Owen was actually good enough as a teenager to be starting for Liverpool, and therefore he did (Aké is not good enough to be starting). Gerrard was a regular starter by the time he was 19 too, because he was just already good enough at the time. Totti too, was a regular starter at 18.

De Rossi is possibly the only example who will have done what you want Aké to do and just start as a squad player and grow into the role when he could be doing what the rest of them did and start week in week out at the level he is at. The loan system is very useful and something we should take advantage of. The youth players who are coming into our squad next season (Kalas, KDB, Lukaku) + Bertrand all had successful loans prior to their first season with Chelsea, as did Sturridge, our first sort of successful transition from reserves to first team since Terry.

It also doesn't help that Aké would currently be 6th choice midfielder when we play 2 in midfield, ignoring the possibilities of Luiz/Oscar/KDB there.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,533]

I Don't think his future position has been decided yet.he's still very young and could end up growing into at least 3 permanent positions.

Where FSW decided to play him doesn't mean much when he's gone now.

I think he'll end up either FB or CB eventually but like everyone else on here I Don't know for sure.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Chelsea Football Club is delighted to announce that Nathan Ake has today (Friday) signed a new five-year contract.

http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3342358/title/new-deal-for-ake

:cfc:

[BleedsBlue 1,549]

The academy setup at Chelsea is very different when compared to the other big clubs.We have loads of potential talent but the problem is that we always overcrowd positions with world class players every year.This makes it really hard for the academy players to break through to the first team and hence have to play 45 minutes a month.

The only ideal solution for them is to either loan them out so that they can actually play 90 minutes a week or change our transfer policy but as the latter looks very highly unlikely the loan option is the only best solution.

I personally feel that the manager and the board should get together and agree to a mandatory target of promoting at least one academy player to the first team every year and here I am not just talking about rare few minutes but like an actual target of say a given fair amount of time a season

[bushman 2,043]

Another talented you man signed for 5 years. The little I have seen of him, I was very impressed.

The 18 year old is given more opportunity elsewhere for now & I am certain he will be back for Chelsea within a year or two.

[ja1 1,166]

Someone confirmed half time in the U21 match yesterday that he's not going on loan as we want him to be homegrown. That doesn't stop a domestic loan but I guess Vitesse were more interested.

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

Want all the best for this lad. Has showed more urgency and drive than the likes of Mikel as of late

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

Want all the best for this lad. Has showed more urgency and drive than the likes of Mikel as of late

That's not saying much

[Atlas Lion 1,223]

That's not saying much

Mikel was quality Sep-Nov. then became far to inconsistent

[ZanSnake 1,211]

If Mikel leaves, then i think he could be added as a possible string player in rotation, as well as appearances through Carling Cup and FA Cup ties.