31. Cesare Casadei

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[DDA 9,689]

Welcome young man. Good luck.

[Nero 1,843]

I do not get it. This guy is too old to be a academy player. But not good enough for the PL (zero Serie A playtime) 

What's the point?

Edited August 19, 2022 by Nero

[MoroccanBlue 5,318]

7 minutes ago, Nero said:

I do not get it. This guy is too old to be a academy player. But not good enough for the PL (zero Serie A playtime) 

What's the point?

Build for the future.

[ZAPHOD2319 4,514]

15 minutes ago, Nero said:

I do not get it. This guy is too old to be a academy player. But not good enough for the PL (zero Serie A playtime) 

What's the point?

The Dodgers are always buying up talent, signing them to a long contract, selling in a few years after playing in the minor leagues. They make huge profits. It could be they are trying to do the same here. Will know if some of these players go out on loan to develop.

[Vesper 28,993]

How Chelsea’s teen signing Cesare Casadei is settling in after €20m move

https://theathletic.com/3602613/2022/09/18/Chelsea-cesare-casadei/

Amid Chelsea’s record transfer spend this summer, midfielder Cesare Casadei’s arrival from Inter Milan has been somewhat overlooked.

Normally, the fact Chelsea spent an initial €15million (£13.1m; $15m) on a 19-year-old with the potential of another €5m in add-ons would have generated a lot more fanfare as well as scrutiny.

But when the club commits £250million-plus on new talent and sacks their Champions League-winning head coach, Thomas Tuchel, just seven games into the campaign, you can see why the teenager is not exactly in the limelight right now. This is actually proving to be a good thing.

Chelsea considered loaning him out when they purchased the midfielder in order to give him some first-team experience straight away — the closest he got to a senior match at Inter was being an unused substitute at Sassuolo in February. But the club decided against it because they felt the best thing was for him to get a chance to settle in at Chelsea, to feel what the place is all about and be a part of things.

The academy also felt it was important he was given the chance to learn English, something that will obviously be crucial if he is to develop into a potential first-team player. He has a basic understanding of the language but is now taking three lessons a week to become more fluent.

This was no opportunistic purchase. He had been scouted and been on the radar of academy director Neil Bath for some time. The fact he scored an impressive 24 goals and created seven assists in two seasons for Inter Milan’s under-19s naturally caught the club’s attention, especially as 17 of those strikes came in 2021-22 to help the Serie A club win the under-19 championship. He also played for Italy as they reached the last four at the European Under-19 Championships this summer, a tournament England would go on to win with Chelsea youngsters Harvey Vale and Carney Chukwuemeka, who joined from Aston Villa in a deal worth up to £20million after the tournament, in the side.

You might suspect his arrival for such a large fee might cause suspicion, jealousy and angst among some of his new teammates. Yet it didn’t take many training sessions for everyone to be convinced of his quality. It is understood he was quickly accepted by all.

To say he didn’t enjoy the best of starts is a bit of an understatement, suffering the ignominy of being sent off for a pair of yellow card offences on his debut in a 1-0 defeat at Sutton United in the EFL Trophy. But he showed great strength of character to bounce back just three days later by scoring in his first Premier League 2 match to help secure a 2-0 win at Everton.

 

On Saturday, The Athletic took the opportunity to see him in the flesh for the first time and see whether the hype is justified. While the senior squad were involved in a friendly behind closed doors at Brighton, a match arranged due to the Premier League fixture with Liverpool being postponed, Casadei was the most expensive player on the pitch as Chelsea’s under-21s took on an unbeaten Crystal Palace under-21s in front of just over 600 people at Selhurst Park.

This was a genuine test at this level. Crystal Palace are a fine team with physical and fast runners. Every time a Chelsea player dwelled too long on the ball, their opponents were pressing them in a flash.

In the early stages, the game looked a bit too quick for the youngster. Playing beside Lewis Hall ahead of the back four in a 4-2-3-1 formation, he gave the ball away a couple of times too easily. On one occasion, it almost cost a goal as Malcolm Ebiowei cut inside and shot just over the bar.

During an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, he was asked about people comparing him to Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, as well as how he studied Inter duo Marcelo Brozovic and Nicolo Barella. He replied: “I like him (Milinkovic-Savic) a lot for the characteristics he has and for how he plays, he is a player from whom I draw inspiration. But to get to those levels you have to work a lot.

“At Inter, I obviously look at the midfielders, in particular Brozovic and Barella: they are two great champions. What would I steal from them? Barella’s intensity and Brozovic’s calmness with the ball.”

Initially, it was hard to marry up these ambitious comments with the player being overrun in the opening minutes. But the longer the first half progressed, the more he began to dictate play and look the part.

It helped that Chelsea had the exciting winger Omari Hutchinson, who they signed from Arsenal’s academy, as an outlet on the right wing. In truth, he was stealing the show, scoring in each half and hitting a superb 25-yard free-kick against the inside of the post.

But good players always seem to be able to find that little bit of extra time and space to express themselves. Two sublime cross-field passes by Casadei to Dylan Williams and Dion Rankine provoked ‘oohs’ of admiration from the Crystal Palace supporters.

He didn’t cause much of a goal threat in the first-half, which was surprising given he is a box-to-box midfielder. A member of Chelsea’s camp made a point of highlighting to The Athletic at the interval that this was unusual for him. It did seem that he was taking it in turns with Hall to join the attack or drop back to cover.

Perhaps some words were said by coach Mark Robinson at the interval because Casadei was more of a presence up front in the second half. Hutchinson’s second goal came because of the Italian. At 6ft 1in, Casadei has already built a reputation of being good in the air. You could see that as he rose majestically to head Derrick Abu’s cross towards goal. It took a tremendous save from keeper Owen Goodman to deny him, but the ball went straight to Hutchinson to find the net on the rebound.

He was rewarded, albeit fortunately, following another run into the area when Hall’s shot hit him and deflected into the corner to give Robinson’s team what looked like a comfortable 3-1 lead. You could argue he made his own luck by advancing into a dangerous position in the first place.

Encouragingly he tracked back to negate Crystal Palace counter-attacks on more than one occasion, by fair means and foul, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Chelsea contrived to concede two goals in the last 10 minutes to leave with only a 3-3 draw. The visitors’ assured passing game disappeared and Casadei was one of the individuals who went missing as Crystal Palace pushed forward to exert greater pressure. That was the time when Chelsea needed his assuredness in possession. Yet you couldn’t hear him demanding the ball from the others around him, taking the lead. Perhaps that will come when he feels more comfortable in English.

Still, there were a lot more positives than negatives and two goals from three appearances is a good return. Chelsea will assess things again in January to see whether a loan would suit him better, but there was enough evidence during his display at Crystal Palace to explain why the club bought him in the first place. Whether he ends up proving value for money remains to be seen.

 

Edited September 20, 2022 by Vesper

[MoroccanBlue 5,318]

He and Hutchinson are taking the piss out of PL2. 

[DDA 9,689]

https://youtu.be/icQ4at_L9sM

Hutchinson looks a baller

[NikkiCFC 8,041]

This guy looks amazing, very excited about him. @OhForAGreavsie what is your opinion, you probably watched him live many times?

[Vesper 28,993]

I think he is going to be a great player

Edited November 28, 2022 by Vesper

[MoroccanBlue 5,318]

Sooner or later he needs to be training with the first team and on the match day squad. 

[Jype 6,398]

2 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Sooner or later he needs to be training with the first team and on the match day squad. 

Would assume he'll join the training camp in Abu Dhabi with the non-WC first teamers and probably gets to play in the friendly against Villa too. Should be a good opportunity for him to impress the coaching staff with Kovacic, Mount, Gallagher, Zakaria all at the world cup and Kante still injured. 

Should look to either promote him to training full time with the first team squad with the occasional matchday appearance or send him out on loan for the second half of the season. He's clearly too good for the PL2 and his development would be better served playing at a higher level, whether it's at Chelsea right away or out on loan somewhere first.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,898]

On 27/11/2022 at 23:18, NikkiCFC said:

This guy looks amazing, very excited about him. @OhForAGreavsie what is your opinion, you probably watched him live many times?

Oddly enough me and another Chelsea obsessed long term fan were discussing Cesare during the CFCW Champions League tie with Real Madrid. This 'youngster' has been watching The Blues since 1964 which is longer than even me. 🙂 We watch Chelsea Academy & CFCW games together, but we've never sat together at a CFCM match. Unlike me he went to the EFL Trophy game at Peterborough.

When I brought up Cesare and said that I didn't think he was ready, my friend immediately agreed. The young Italian is progressing but, for me, lacks finesse in some parts of his game. He works hard and fully commits to the physical side but I think he needs a loan to test and sharpen the way he manipulates and uses the ball. I think that a Premier League loan would be pointless, he wouldn't get minutes but, if a Championship or even League One team can offer him game time, that would be the next logical step.

[Tomo 21,733]

43 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Oddly enough me and another Chelsea obsessed long term fan were discussing Cesare during the CFCW Champions League tie with Real Madrid. This 'youngster' has been watching The Blues since 1964 which is longer than even me. 🙂 We watch Chelsea Academy & CFCW games together, but we've never sat together at a CFCM match. Unlike me he went to the EFL Trophy game at Peterborough.

When I brought up Cesare and said that I didn't think he was ready, my friend immediately agreed. The young Italian is progressing but, for me, lacks finesse in some parts of his game. He works hard and fully commits to the physical side but I think he needs a loan to test and sharpen the way he manipulates and uses the ball. I think that a Premier League loan would be pointless, he wouldn't get minutes but, if a Championship or even League One team can offer him game time, that would be the next logical step.

I've watched them a bit (due to living in close proximity) and Plymouth would be a good move for him.

Likewise for Slonina if they lose their keeper (in my opinion a PL level keeper already) in January.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,898]

2 hours ago, Tomo said:

I've watched them a bit (due to living in close proximity) and Plymouth would be a good move for him.

Likewise for Slonina if they lose their keeper (in my opinion a PL level keeper already) in January.

Oddly enough I was hoping CFC Dev would draw Plymouth. Would be nice to watch them down there.

[Vesper 28,993]

On 01/12/2022 at 13:37, Tomo said:

Likewise for Slonina if they lose their keeper (in my opinion a PL level keeper already) in January.

Michael Cooper?

[Tomo 21,733]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

Michael Cooper?

Yep.

I doubted my assessment after the summer when he stayed at Plymouth (a bit like @OhForAGreavsiewith his Havertz thoughts once Real etc passed on him I felt there must have been something I'm missing if no one even in the Champ is snapping him up) but after watching this season (and speaking to their fans) I'm even more convinced. Plymouth wouldn't even be in the play offs without him let alone top.

I like his distribution a lot aswell, unfortunately a lot of times the Argyle players aren't clever enough to read what he's going to do but I think he will have a lot of fun with PL level movement infront of him.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tomo

[ZAPHOD2319 4,514]

Good luck Cesare