I was thinking about this during the whole John Stones saga. If he was a Chelsea youth player he would probably be on loan at either some championship club or at vitesse. We've spent a massive amount of money on our youth and yet John Terry at 35 is still the last youth player to make it our club. They've won pretty muchevery major youth trophy there is to be won so at that level they're clearly good but somehow they're not making that step up to the senior team.

What do you think needs to be done? personally I think the problem goes beyond Chelsea. English youth coaching is terrible and is affecting the players development.

The club should poach youth coaches from the continent who have a proven track record of developing talented youth and start them young. It might be expensive but that's better in the long run when they develop into talented youngsters and we won't have to spend 30m on another youth player.

Edited July 18, 20159 yr by Darogba

A handful have gone on to have success elsewhere. If you consider Tore, Bruma and Bertrand part of our youth set up. Thats all I could think of off the top of my head.

Youth players struggle to get chances at big clubs because of how good the competition is in the squads.

Loaning can sometimes work, but you have to become world class on loan to stand any chance of getting into the first team.

I'm not sure if anything us particularly wrong with our youth setup as it is making us money. As long as we can afford to buy the best players, then there is no real need to rely on youth players coming through as it stands.

I'm not sure what could be done to improve the chances of getting a youth player to make that step up, the trouble with the loan system, is that the clubs loaning our players are under no obligation to play them, and it returns mixed results.

Maybe it would be better to actually sell some of these youth players after they have qualified as homegrown, but with a buy back clause that would give the buying club an incentive to develop our products into the finished article.

It's all about momentum with these kids, you can be destined for stardom one minute, then a poor 6 months on loan or on our bench and it's looking like the ship has sailed.

Look at chalobah, when Mourinho took over, chalobah had just come off the back of a fantastic loan at Watford. 2 years later and I'm not sure whether he will even be prem standard.

In hindsight if he had been given a shot after that Watford loan, im not talking starting week in week out, but around 20 appearances in the season, he could have pushed himself into contention.

It's a complicated situation with no right or wrong answers, as every case is different and there is no way to go back in time.

As long as we are winning trophies, then I guess it doesn't matter where our players come from, but I'm sure I'm not the only that would like to see a few more local lads taking on the world.

Look how much it cost over the selling and buying back Matic.

The academy me is top notch its the first team management needs to give a bit more trust

Look how much it cost over the selling and buying back Matic.

To be fair we didn't put a buy back clause in the matic sale. Using that as an example though we should have put in a 15m buy back clause.

I think fans need to reel in their expection of the youth set up, the class of 92 is a once in a lifetime at least event.

Our players have gone on to have successful careers elsewhere.

How many youth guys have United, Citeh, Arsenal brought through to be first team players? You could count it on one hand, I'd love us to have a team full of academy graduates but to make it at these big clubs, you really do have to be something special.

I posted it somewhere else but I think if we get 2 or 3 of the current crop in and around the first team we'll be very lucky!

No issues with the Academy. We're clearly giving our youth footballers every opportunity, through progressive loaning, to establish a career in football at their highest potential.

 

Limited opportunity is obvious, every game is a must-win. You just have to read these forums to see that any player underperforming, or any managerial mistake is picked up and scrutinised in meticulous detail. You can understand why so few have even made a small cameo appearance for the first team.

 

Plus, even looking at it statistically, the odds are incredibly small that we'll develop many locals into regular first team footballers. I'm all for hoping it'll happen more often - but it's a bit harsh to suggest our Academy is doing a poor job.

At the top level youth players are just not good enough and the competition is such that it is too much of a risk to even try them.

 

Look around.  Probably only one top team in the world can get away with bringing in youth and that's Bayern where they are just head and shoulders above everyone else and they walk the league every year.  There are hardly any youth products at United, City, Real Madrid.  Arsenal have a couple but Arsenal never win anything.  The great La Masia has produced how many players in the last 5/6 years that are playing regularly for Barcelona.  There's just too much at stake.

 

Oh and people keep bringing up Matic.  Let me tell you that there is 0% chance that Matic would have become the player he became if he had stayed at Chelsea.  It took a very good coach (Jorge Jesus) who saw the potential and spent a lot of time moulding and developing him to become world class.  To do that he had to be given game time which was not a problem in a league where the standard and therefore the risk isn't so high.  Unfortunately there aren't many coaches like Jorge Jesus (Even Jose is not as good as him in this department) who are so adept at developing players and in terms of all our loanees, why is a coach going to go through all the trouble and spending time trying to develop a player that is not really his and will not be there the next year.  Matic was taught how to be an amazing, disciplined player.  Most of our players go on loan and just play but there is nobody at these clubs that is dedicated to developing and improving them so that one day they might become world class. 

 

Another problem is that since standards are higher, players only become world class later.  Eden Hazard who is undoubtedly going to be one of the three best players in the world someday became world class at 22.  Matic became world class at 24.  You can't expect 19 year olds to be world class, but then again if they're not world class why have them in the team.  

 

The best thing to do would be to sell them on with a buy back clause at 20 or 21.  This is the stage that their development might stall due to lack of playing time.  Then hope somebody develops them to become world class players.

 

Finally people keep have too high opinion of our youth players.  How many times do we see people saying - why are we going to buy XXXXXXX, our youth player is better than him.  This is total rubbish.  None of our youth players that have gone on loan have proved to be good enough to play for Chelsea (bar maybe Traore and Bamford)  If you can't be the best player on a championship team why are Chelsea going to bring you back.  We certainly wouldn't buy a championship player unless he was the best player in that league.  Also if you can't even get off the bench at a European team why should they be in Chelsea's team.  Danny Wellbeck played better on loan for a premier league side than any of our loan players have and look at where he is now - Arsenal sub.  

 

If you want to play for Chelsea you have to prove it in the premiership or at a high European level.  Otherwise you're just not good enough.

Good post, sergio7

"Why are we going to buy XXXXXXX, our youth player is better than him.  This is total rubbish. "

Completely agree. If our youth is better, someone already pay XXXXXXX for him.

 

Unless you go on loan and become a starter for a good team (aka Courtois), there is almost zero chance you will come back here and become starter.

One thing that should be considered is the youth setup is a business. We use a lot of money to develop these kids so we need to make some money of them as well.

We are not a selling club like Liverpool [emoji23] for example but we need to make ends meet(forget Roman). The rate of our youth making Chelsea first team is non-excisitent but our youth making Prem or other big leagues must be a bit better.

Isn't our youth setup one of the best in the country these days? We are making these raw young kids a huge huge huge favour raising them to be professional footballers. First and foremost we want them to progress to the first team but it is a similar wish as Wengers wish to win the league.

How much a John Terry-scenario happens among worlds top 10 clubs happen? I think that is a more fair question. Still don't think is shouldn't be addressed as a problem just saying it is how it is.

I think if jose (presumably) shows faith in RLC and solanke (though the latter will likely not go into the first team squad) it proves we will bring these youngsters through IF they can prove they have the ability to compete with the first team players. however, these youngsters are going to have to show massive potential if they are to break through. it shows how poor our defensive players in the youth team are if jose would rather buy stones than put faith in players in the academy. 

 

Barcelona have been fortunate that they have an amazing academy that brought through excellent talent during a short period, which included future first team players including fabregas, pique, messi, iniesta, xavi, pedro etc. This really doesn't happen often, the same can be said for bayern munich who may have to wait another decade before producing the talent of previous. i think we're coming into a new era as a club in terms of producing top young talent, but we'll probably be waiting a good few years before we can become the new barcelona/bayern. 

Edited July 19, 20159 yr by enigma

Good post, sergio7

"Why are we going to buy XXXXXXX, our youth player is better than him. This is total rubbish. "

Completely agree. If our youth is better, someone already pay XXXXXXX for him.

Unless you go on loan and become a starter for a good team (aka Courtois), there is almost zero chance you will come back here and become starter.

Courtois was not a youth player

The issue is and always has been since Roman bought the club is the club are expected to win things. If the manager doesn't win something major each season he is gone. Jose is the only one to survive a trophy less season since Roman turned up.

Now if your job is on the line, who do you trust? Do you trust an experienced player who has played in big matches and has already won things or do you trust a youth player who hasn't got that experience yet?

If it was me I would be playing the experienced players to make sure I'm still in a job next season.

Let's not feel sorry for these kids, at 17/18 years old most of them are earning more in a week than other kids their age earning in 2 to 3 years. These kids know that it's not likely they will ever play for the first team but it will give them step up in football and they will go on to join another club and make a more than comfortable living.

One more thing, I bet if you asked most Chelsea fans if they would like to win the league most years by playing the experienced players or doing an Arsenal and not win the league for over 10 years because they are trying to bring through a youth project, most would pick winning the league.

Seeing a player come through the ranks is a wonderful thing but at the possible expense of the team winning I personally don't think it's worth the risk.

I don't think they're as mutually exclusive as people try to make out. Sides win titles with youth players and sides win titles without them. It doesn't make a difference.

Every new player be it a transfer or youth player is a risk and given the amount of bombs most clubs go through in the transfer market it's hard to argue they are a better or more calculated risk.

What I like in Holland's system is they have mutually decided they can't compete with the money against the likes of English PL, Germany or even Italy so they have decided they bring up the best youth in Europe and are a selling league/country. A collective decision. They are not aiming Ajax to be a super-club but them to be the best place for their youth to grow and be in a good shopping window. Their national team is miles ahead of England's and very good young players come through their ranks.

In England there is a huge pressure on clubs like Everton or Tottenham to make top4 so they make CL so they attract better players and so on. This deplets the chances of youth coming through.

Not saying this should be done in England just saying maybe we need to realize the current situation of today and not expect youth to come through in super-clubs.

I think fans need to reel in their expection of the youth set up, the class of 92 is a once in a lifetime at least event.

Our players have gone on to have successful careers elsewhere.

How many youth guys have United, Citeh, Arsenal brought through to be first team players? You could count it on one hand, I'd love us to have a team full of academy graduates but to make it at these big clubs, you really do have to be something special.

I posted it somewhere else but I think if we get 2 or 3 of the current crop in and around the first team we'll be very lucky!

 

 

Exactly, a successful youth academy should also be measured by the number of players that come through it and go on to have continued professional careers.  Not just "who's made it into our team since JT?"

 

Our academy is churning out some great players that have gone on elsewhere, some with relative success, some with little.  So for us to have sold them on and made money off them is a sign of a "successful" set up.  As frustrating as it may be to some.

 

Matic is obviously an exception, but he's back now and we got Luiz out of that deal and then more than covered Matic's fees with those of Luiz.