Nice little interview on Blues News just now (repeated on Chelsea TV at 10:00pm), in which Michael Woods answers questions on playing for England Under 21's, being in the First team squad, and on Michael Mancienne's call-up to the full England squad.

Any way of giving us a quick summary of what was said?

No major revelations, but all good positive stuff about how how thrilled he was to be in the first team squad; about how much he learned from playing with world class players - even in an hour he learned a lot, he said. He also spoke about his excitement at getting called up for the under 21's, and how the rest of the reserve teams were excited for Michael Mancienne, how he really deserves it, also adding that he and the others realise how difficult it is to make it into the first team when there is so much world class talent in the squad.

No real news maybe, but a nice little counterbalance to all those who have been bemoaning the lack of opportunities given to youth and reserve team players. If the youngsters themselves can stay positive, then we sure as hell should be able to.

Cheers Lofty,

I am obviously one of the people who advocate the development of our youth players; although not at the expense of success. So it's nice to get an insight as to how they are feeling about the whole situation. I know it is hard for them to break into the first team, but I am sure it has to be great for their careers if they can get some playing time with the first team.

As he said, even an hour with the first team has to carry a lot of weight.

Thanks Lofty

Good news, Cheers for summarising Lofty. Nice to see it's not all doom and gloom in our youth set-up.

Good to hear he's happy... although I didn't really expect him to say

"I f***ing hate it here... I'm never gonna get a game with that b*****d Lampard around... I even got outrun by f***ing Mineiro in training the other day... I'd even take a train to f***ing Spuds over this"