Michael Emenalo (Technical Director, Chelsea)

[LDN Blue 7,903]

I'm glad the Chelsea PR department have finally realized that communication with fans needs some improvement. The Emenalo extracts have been insightful (more affirming what we already suspect though).

[LDN Blue 7,903]

'When I came here six years ago we had great players but what we had below those great players were players too young and too far apart to be able to integrate them. Now we have great players and they are not so far apart. Now we have a player like Frank Lampard at 35 but then we have quality players in Ramires, John Mikel Obi, Michael Essien and Marco van Ginkel, and then we have from the Academy young players who can come in and do the job like Nathaniel Chalobah and Josh McEachran.

'We are trying to bridge the gap and at left-back now behind Ashley Cole we have Ryan Bertand but we also have Patrick van Aanholt.

'We have Romelu Lukaku who soon will be able to come back in and Juan Mata is 25, Oscar and Hazard are 22 but behind them from the Academy, in terms of age, Lewis Baker, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jeremie Boga are not too far away.

'By the time those older guys are 27, the younger ones will be around 22 and ready. The gap is not too big and that makes it easier to bring through young players.'

This extract is encouraging to read, the gap is something that's been bemoaned for a while. Especially from guys like Esk. But it's one thing to simply state all this, another to implement a plan to integrate the youngsters.

[Tomo 21,733]

It's good that Eddie Newton still remains at the club.

[ZanSnake 1,211]

Good to know the club are searching for right team when they are trying to get loans for players rather them financial need. To bad some haven't worked out like that in the past, with Davila and Delac coming plainly to mind.

[Barbara 15,149]

I'm really happy to read about the strategies and philosophy in the club now.

It's a good investment - to sign the players when they're potentials and consequently less expensive - and then give them chances to keep developing until they're ready to finish their development with us, especially with a master in polishing gems like José Mourinho.

Everything seems to be coming together, great timing (getting Emenalo in place, Roman's change of vision, Mourinho joining and the signings themselves).

I do hope they really start taking the Academy more seriously - and it won't be just nice words to get a few thumb ups - England desperately need to revive their academies and I'd feel so proud if we were the pioneers doing that. I want to have more cases like John Terry in the team. It's a respectful thing and England needs to keep its status as one of the big countries in football for EPL to continue to be successful.

[AndersonBLUE 819]

It was a good article at the right time and explained some of the decision making, especially about the part about Lukaku, Ba and Torres.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Interesting point about Vitesse always giving our players the game time they promise. Hopefully that means that they intend on somehow fitting the four wingers we currently have on loan there into their plans.

[English Freak 456]

Interesting point about Vitesse always giving our players the game time they promise. Hopefully that means that they intend on somehow fitting the four wingers we currently have on loan there into their plans.

Piazon and Kakuta can play through the middle, so I guess that provides some flexibility to their plans.