The youth project

[lionsden 4,689]

The "Chelsea Youth project" is an illusion that doesn't exist.

[iseah100 5,612]

The "Chelsea Youth project" is an illusion that doesn't exist.

Like life. #Deep

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Why don't we just shut down the youth team?? Clearly we don't need it when a fucking technically poor CB is preferred at LB ahead of a youth player who has played Lb all his life

[OhForAGreavsie 5,898]

Who do you have in mind VK? Off the top of my head I can't think of any LB in our development squad who has played the position all his life.

[Madmax 9,219]

Aina, I'm guessing.

[ulvhedin 508]

Aina is RB i think

[ulvhedin 508]

Squad vs MK Dons: Beeney, Dabo, Davey, Clarke-Salter, Aké, Romeu, Boga, Chalobah, Feruz, Swift, Lucas Piazon

Holy shit, some long forgotten names there - Ferus, Piazon, Swift, Romeu

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Squad vs MK Dons: Beeney, Dabo, Davey, Clarke-Salter, Aké, Romeu, Boga, Chalobah, Feruz, Swift, Lucas Piazon

Holy shit, some long forgotten names there - Ferus, Piazon, Swift, Romeu

This is why I've given up on expecting any names from our academy are making it to the first team. Every season we have a player that we think will be the one to break through. Swift, Feruz, Piazon have all in the past been touted as 'making it'. Other names like Conor Clifford were expecting to break through. What's the point of the club being excited by winning the FA Youth Cup & European success when the players from those squads end up in the Championship lol.

[Spike 12,049]

The "Chelsea Youth project" is an illusion that doesn't exist.

Don't know what you are talking about. Players are brought in, loaned to a club till their value increases and sold for profit. Definitely following the Ajax system of farming and selling players as a commodity. Its a project alright, just not the project a lot of people desire.

[Viper22 2,418]

Why don't we just shut down the youth team?? Clearly we don't need it when a fucking technically poor CB is preferred at LB ahead of a youth player who has played Lb all his life

Who is this imaginary player you have invented who was on the bench at the CS and has played LB all his life? Because as I saw it that 'technically poor' CB was the only defender on the bench.

Our most senior pure LB is Jay DaSilva. Aina has varied but has mainly played RB and Ake had played more at DM.

And if you're suggesting that because a 17 year old that only signed his professional contract a month ago didn't get onto the bench ahead of one of the other more senior players we should shut down the academy then.... just lol.

[Aexone 25]

Do people who comment about our youth team not understand that we are a top-class club, and THOUSANDS of players are touted as 'the next Messi' or 'the next big thing', and the chances of Chelsea signing one for <£20m is EXTREMELY small. Look at Dortmund's squad - hailed to have a fantastic youth development system - they sell around 5-10 players a season to lower tier teams because the players simply don't make the cut. No-one can say if Kenedy, Bertrand Traore, Atsu, Boga, Izzy Brown, Wallace, Chalobah, Aina, DaSilva or Loftus Cheek (there are more quality names in the youth teams, they're the first ones that came to mind) will make it as superstar footballers or not. No-one could say Hazard would be as good as he's become when he was at Lille. We even sold Matic to Benfica because he wasn't good enough, but he developed there and is now arguably one of the most important Chelsea players in the team. Development is a funny thing, and the 'rinse-and-repeat' strategy of signing a lot of people, then even 1% of them developing into first team players, it's worth it. The agreement with Vitesse in invaluable, as is the relentless loaning to Middlesbrough. If we had no youth system, we wouldn't have Courtois, or Terry. Then we'd be fucked.

[termninja 5,290]

This thread should be renamed to The Loan Project

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

For all the bleak outlooks, the best case striker scenario for Patty and Dom is that they both have fantastic loans, Falcao is poor (do we actually have a buy option?) and then Bamford is good enough to take Remy's place and we get some money for him, and Solanke can be 3rd choice. All of the aboves are ifs, but are also all perfectly possible.

Similarly, next season I expect Pasalic to stay with us (I was expecting a recall this season, tbh) as he would be perfect in the pivot, or in the middle of a diamond with Cescy.

I also expect RLC to be our 4th choice, and if he does not rapidly improve will be sent out on the loan train.

Furthermore if Iva declines then Azpi will likely go to the RB, if Baba lives to potential at LB then Dasilva may have his opportunity to be 2nd choice LB.

[supporter 3,088]

We have very good young players, but they have very difficult to play on our team because Jose prefers experienced players.

Maybe Vitesse is a good place for them to play in the 2015-2016 season and fight for win Eredevisie. And maybe all (or most)

Right now they have Izzy, Solanke, Nathan, Baker and Pantic on loan from our team, and perhaps players like Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathan Aké, Lucas Piazon or Romeu (perhaps also Kenedy if he does not get the work permit) should also go to Vitesse on loan next season to have all our players on loan in the same team, which would help us to have them better controlled and to help them.

It sounds crazy, but with those players Vitesse could fight for win Eredevisie (they reached the fifth position last year), and our young players would be in a team with a winning mentality and maybe they can come back in 2016 to be important for us.

Eredevisie is no better than Premier League, but is better than U21 or other small teams. A good step for our young players.

Regards.

[Tomo 21,733]

Do people who comment about our youth team not understand that we are a top-class club, and THOUSANDS of players are touted as 'the next Messi' or 'the next big thing', and the chances of Chelsea signing one for <£20m is EXTREMELY small. Look at Dortmund's squad - hailed to have a fantastic youth development system - they sell around 5-10 players a season to lower tier teams because the players simply don't make the cut. No-one can say if Kenedy, Bertrand Traore, Atsu, Boga, Izzy Brown, Wallace, Chalobah, Aina, DaSilva or Loftus Cheek (there are more quality names in the youth teams, they're the first ones that came to mind) will make it as superstar footballers or not. No-one could say Hazard would be as good as he's become when he was at Lille. We even sold Matic to Benfica because he wasn't good enough, but he developed there and is now arguably one of the most important Chelsea players in the team. Development is a funny thing, and the 'rinse-and-repeat' strategy of signing a lot of people, then even 1% of them developing into first team players, it's worth it. The agreement with Vitesse in invaluable, as is the relentless loaning to Middlesbrough. If we had no youth system, we wouldn't have Courtois, or Terry. Then we'd be fucked.

It always makes me laugh when people have a go at the club for "treating poorly" a player who was clearly no where near good enough to ever make it.

[Amblève. 4,995]

Well, now that our emphasis is on making profit with youth players we better shut down that academy. After all, it costs a fucking lot.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Keep on farming youth, abandon all these big name signings to go for potential...

Maybe we will unearth another Messi, or another Kakuta who the fuck knows. I hope the club stops putting full effort into this before it is too late once our investment reaches a high level it will be impossible to turn back or at least will take a while. Going Arsenal 2004-2013 road if we decide to do this utopia approach.

[MefiX19 1,092]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2570552-top-100-youth-prospects-in-european-football

We have most young prospects in Europe. Zouma 4th, 13 is Musonda and 14 is RLC, but theres TONS of our youngsters in that list.