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In 2008, when Frank Arnesen was Chelsea’s sporting director, he spoke proudly at a conference about the investment the club was making in its academy.
An elegant presentation illustrated how they had revised the previous youth system and were now searching for and developing the best players in Europe.
It ended with a brilliant video clip, with inspiring music, as the strange academy graduate jogged for 15 minutes in a League Cup tie for Chelsea.
Striking for his absence from the presentation or video was the Chelsea captain at the time and one of their best players, even though he was an academy graduate. John Terry’s face didn’t quite fit.
He had been raised in Chelsea before the era of Roman Abramovich and the Arnesen revolution and was thus apparently erased from history as part of the ancient era, which had had its day.
To be fair to Arnesen, these were the early days. But it was shaken in the next few years when Chelsea would brag about their academy, which from 2010 to 2018 won the FA Youth Cup seven times – that academy’s only shining star, the club’s captain, preceded those times, while the Invariably sub players, the new refurbished system would be loaned to Vitesse Arnhem and never heard from again.
Still, Arensen’s reasoning was not wrong. He explained that the era of Abramovich splashing millions in transfers had to be tempered and replaced by a more balanced model, in which Chelsea would coach its own stars. It was quite an ambitious cultural change.
After all, even before Abramovich, Chelsea was seen as the team of foreign mercenaries, the place to go for a decent reward at the end of their career. They were the first Premier League team to feature a totally foreign XI, in 1999, causing consternation among traditionalists.
For years we waited for Arnesen’s vision to come true. Arnesen himself would be leaving the club in 2010. Silently, behind the scenes, with less fanfare, someone was taking his vision and shaping it into something tangible.
Ironically, he was one of the youth coaches who had been with the club since 1993 and thus was part of the old era, Neil Bath. As director of the academy, he began to produce some of the best young players in Europe. And yet they never seemed quite right.
However, some managers accepted the vision more than others, however, when the layoff attracted attention the moment it failed, it was not exactly the ideal environment for a long-term vision. Carlo Ancelotti tried, while Gael Kakuta, Josh McEachran and Patrick van Anholt started to push towards the first team, but was fired before he had a chance to nurture them.
Most of the managers, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and Rafa Benítez, did not last long enough to implement something long term. Villas-Boas and Di Matteo gave opportunities to Ryan Bertrand, who performed well in the final when Chelsea won the Champions League in 2012, and Benítez was the first to believe in Nathan Ake.
José Mourinho’s second stint at the club was not associated with the prosperity of the young players, although it did give Andreas Christensen his first games. It would be fair to say that, among the many qualities that Antonio Conte possessed, the development of youth did not stand out. Maurizio Sarri didn’t seem to mind too much either.
Meanwhile, Abramovich’s vision of a self-made Chelsea remained an ethereal dream, something that looks great on paper but less brilliant in the top-flight real world.
That is why the great leap that Frank Lampard has started at the club is not always appreciated. Speaking on Friday, he was nervous in the first part of his press conference, because he is well aware that his job will be in jeopardy for the next few weeks.
However, against that, something quite remarkable is happening in Chelsea. It is reflected in other clubs in the big six, but nowhere has the change been more profound than at Stamford Bridge: Academy graduates are actually achieving good results and, more importantly, making a difference.
In the FA Cup match against Luton, we may see some of Chelsea’s next generation, like winger Tino Anjorin.
For years, the youth team’s lack of progress to the first team at Chelsea has been an ongoing joke. However, it is now conceivable that Chelsea could present a really good first XI next season, with six internationals, all of whom are local: Blackman; James, Christensen, Tomori / Ampadu, Maatsen; Loftus-Cheek / Gallagher, Gilmour, Mount; Anjorin, Abraham, Hudson-Odoi.
The team requires some players on loan, such as Jamal Blackman (Rotherham) and Conor Gallagher (West Brom) to return. And if Fikayo Tomori makes his loan to AC Milan permanently, then Marc Guehi, who currently shines at Swansea, or Ethan Ampadu, on loan at Sheffield United, would have to replace.
It cannot be ignored that Chelsea are on the cusp of something extraordinary. Barcelona was once regarded as the model for the development of the academy and the Chelsea model was somehow an attempt to copy them. In 2012, in a La Liga game against Levante, Barcelona made a historic change when Dani Alves was injured to be replaced by Martín Montoya.
When Montoya entered, the 11 players on the field were graduates of the Barça youth academy. And no matter how good Chelsea’s theoretical team is, they couldn’t match it: Valdés; Montoya, Puyol, Piqué, Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Fabregas; Pedro, Messi, Iniesta.
Still, Chelsea is about to replicate that moment. And if Lampard keeps his job until next season, it would be fitting if he were the man to pick that team. When asked about the number of players he has developed and developed, he said: ‘I’m proud of that. I mentioned it a lot last year, that I didn’t want us to become a quarry club, I wanted us to win and achieve things.
But when I came back here, I made a conscious decision to look at the younger players, because we had a good lot. But also to give them the opportunity to show that they can get into the team. That was not something he had to do, people talked about the transfer ban as if he had to.
But Mason Mount gets into midfield last year ahead of seasoned internationals and Tammy Abraham, as does Fikayo Tomori, Billy Gilmour when he joins the team. It’s double-edged as I trust them and they produced for the team and they should take a lot of credit for that too.
“I felt that it was something really important for the players that go through the academy. Because they really feel the club when you go through the academy, and you have to. And they do, boys. It’s a lovely trait to bring to the first team team. ‘
Mount is particular who has shone is likely to play today. ‘It is crucial for the team. There is always a good balance in this work as to when you can find rest for the players who are crucial to the team, ”said Lampard.
The irony is that after a summer of big spending, it is the inability of top signings Kai Havertz and Timo Werner to join the squad that may end up costing Lampard his job.
In this grim spell, the likes of Mount, James, and Abraham have been in the limelight with Callum Hudson-Odoi beginning to shine again. That won’t save Lampard in the long run if the results don’t improve. But it should at least be at the forefront of Abramovich’s mind when weighing the pros and cons of whether to hit or twist.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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