Honest Question: Why do we have a Youth system?

[The only place to be 11,313]

It's much tougher to step up from being an 18 year old 'star' in the youth team to the first team. The pressure to succeed each week is immense and matches are won in the minutiae....unfortunately young players will make mistakes as that is the nature of inexperience, but successful teams really can't afford one player out of eleven to make errors.

What you need is an established team who are good enough to cover these deficiencies until the young player learns and contributes more. We don't have that. We've not had an established midfielder like Matic for a while for instance, but now we do we may well be able to accommodate youngsters like Chalobah, Van Ginkel or Loftus-Cheek.

Ray Wilkins would probably be on his 8th loan spell to Vitesse and overshadowed by an expensive but not necessarily better player/talent today.

When Ray Wilkins came into the team, we had finished the last season in 12th place.

That season we would finish 17th. The season after 21st.

Contrary to popular belief (amongst some) Chelsea have not always been a top four club challenging for the title and the European Cup.

[Reddish-Blue 2,347]

It's much tougher to step up from being an 18 year old 'star' in the youth team to the first team. The pressure to succeed each week is immense and matches are won in the minutiae....unfortunately young players will make mistakes as that is the nature of inexperience, but successful teams really can't afford one player out of eleven to make errors.

What you need is an established team who are good enough to cover these deficiencies until the young player learns and contributes more. We don't have that. We've not had an established midfielder like Matic for a while for instance, but now we do we may well be able to accommodate youngsters like Chalobah, Van Ginkel or Loftus-Cheek.

Totally agree, I think this season would be a perfect opportunity to see a youngster like Chalobah or Van Ginkel make the step-up to the first team

I really like Van Ginkel's skill-set, looks like the type of player that could add something different to our experienced trio in Matic, Fabregas and Ramires..

[Shakez 755]

but upgrading the facilities shouldn't be a benefit? You almost sound like that is a problem or I misunderstood you.

If the kids are good and come with the right attitude, they may not have a place in our squad, but they could have a spot in other EPL teams and even that is rare...

Maybe is the kind of training, maybe people at Chelsea have bad eye for talent, or maybe the kids just aren't that great. Fact is investment was done, but something still seems off - maybe there isn't much dedication from the club anymore. I honestly don't know.

If winning the FA Youth cup and the PL regular season + Playoffs isn't a statement of having the talent in our youth system, i dunno what is.... As much as i like Mourinho, he is a hinderance in our youth development. Probably his mentality in winning at all costs. Unless we fly the league come january, i don't see him bringing in a youngster.

[Barbara 15,149]

If winning the FA Youth cup and the PL regular season + Playoffs isn't a statement of having the talent in our youth system, i dunno what is.... As much as i like Mourinho, he is a hinderance in our youth development. Probably his mentality in winning at all costs. Unless we fly the league come january, i don't see him bringing in a youngster.

but Mourinho's been here for only a season... how long since we haven't really promoted someone from the youth?

Yeah he was here in the mid 2000's as well, but still 6 years apart and our best effort was Ryan Bertrand, or did I forget someone?

I still believe it's a myth Mourinho doesn't support young players. No one displaces Sergio Frigging Ramos from Real Madrid to play a foreign 19-yo Raphäel Varane if they aren't willing to give youngsters chances. The thing is he expects a certain level of maturity and commitment from his young talents before promoting them and you'll never see Mourinho throwing them in a lion's den - per say. He won't expose them to unnecessary pressure and try to protect them.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

If winning the FA Youth cup and the PL regular season + Playoffs isn't a statement of having the talent in our youth system, i dunno what is.... As much as i like Mourinho, he is a hinderance in our youth development. Probably his mentality in winning at all costs. Unless we fly the league come january, i don't see him bringing in a youngster.

It's not Jose, it's the requirements of being a top European team, especially in England. What team managed to bring players through and still win titles in England? Arsenal have been bringing youth through for years and it took them spending big to sign top players in the past two seasons for them to win an FA cup. United couldn't bring anyone through and had to let Pogba and only when they had a disastrous season and finished 7th that they could bring Januzaj through.

The current youth system just doesn't work for the top teams in the league. Everyone slatted AVB when he said, but he was right, we need B teams in the lower leagues to be able to bring players through.

[Tomo 21,733]

Is there a logical explanation for the huge gap between youth transitioning into the first team at the club in the 50's 60's, 70's,80's and today. The question has to be raised. did we produce more first team talent back then because the quality were superior, talent and attitude wise or because the transition was much more smoother and easier thanks to a different culture and mentality?

Ray wilkins would probably be on his 8th loan spell to Vitesse and overshadowed by an expensive but not necessarily better player/talent today. The bottomline is we are not doing enough to produce first team players from the academy. over-loaning (if such a word exists) is not the solution.

Probably a mix of quite a few things, for our perspective mainly the fact we were not very good meaning the best youth got a chance quicker but on the flip side we had both Wilkins and Spackman to name a couple poached of us by the big boys. Southampton are that type of club today, they produce star players but always lose the best ones, I would hate that to be us, personally, imagine developing Chalobah and then he comes back to The Bridge in a United shirt for the next 15 years.

These days to make it at a top club challenging at the top you need to bide your time, have the patience of a saint, have the right mentality and above all be good enough, because unless you are a freak of nature like Rooney or Shaw you won't be a regular at the top end of football ad a teenager.