Academy Weekly Review

[EskWeston 696]

Another week comes to a close at the Chelsea academy and as always there has been plenty going on. It started last Saturday with a Friendly game for the U18’s against Bristol City which finished in a 4 – 0 win for the young blues. The goals were scored by Walter Figuera, George Cole and Jeremy Boga, who bagged a brace. The U18’s then hopped on a plane for Asia where they will play a couple of Friendly games before coming back to England and then up to Manchester United to play a few friendly games against some big clubs.

Jumping over to America we saw some young players leave the first team tour after more senior players joining up. The players who returned home were Todd Kane, George Saville and Patrick Bamford. Bamford the only player to return disappointed having not managed to get on the pitch during the tour.

The U21’s also had pre-season action this week whilst they were in Austria. A game against 1860 Munich saw a 3 – 2 defeat, Adam Nditi and Adam Coombes (formerly Phillip) with the goals for Chelsea. They have now returned to Cobham to continue their pre-season preparations. Demot Drummy was pleased with how the tour went, both on and off the pitch and feeling he has learned plenty about the players he will be working with for the coming season.

Again this week we have seen Chelsea bolster their ranks not only in the first team but at U21 level. Talented new forward Eden Hazard has been joined by his younger brother Thorgan Hazard who is similar in playing style but not quite at the same standard. It was confirmed that he will initially join up with the U21’s but there is a possibility he may go on loan and I can only imagine it will be to a club in Europe.

With no news yet of any league fixtures at academy level we have already had a small insight into what is to come. The exciting NextGen series has confirmed that they will reveal their fixture list for the coming season on Thursday 7th August. Obviously Chelsea already know who is in their group (Ajax, CSKA and Molde). There has been a number of clubs receiving their new academy status’s this week, Wolves, Sunderland, Stoke and Southampton among the clubs who have been granted Category 1 status, apparently only 12 clubs have been awarded category 1 status. There is still no clear outline as to how the leagues will be set up, but there is a possibility it will consist of 3 leagues with 23 teams. If this is the case it promises to provide the number of fixtures that these young players DO need.

Coming up this week as well as the possible fixtures announcement for U18’s and U21’s will be 2 friendly games for the U18’s against the Tailand National U19’s and the Malaysia National U19’s, and the U21’s are playing a friendly game against Northampton Town.

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