“Chelsea are resigned to losing a highly rated teenager for nothing after Domingos Quina, the Portugal Under-17 attacking midfielder, walked out on the club this week. The Times has learnt that Quina did not return to Chelsea after coming back to London from international duty on Tuesday and intends to train on his own until he finds another club. Chelsea fear that he has already agreed to join one of their Barclays Premier League rivals. Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have all monitored the midfielder’s performances for Chelsea Under-18. They also sent scouts to watch him play for Portugal Under-17 away to Croatia on Monday, with the visiting side winning 4-2 to secure qualification for this summer’s European Championship in Azerbaijan.

 

Chelsea have invested three years in developing Quina after luring the attacking midfielder from Benfica as a 13-year-old, but they would not receive compensation as he has signed only scholarship terms. Under FA rules, Quina is not permitted to sign a professional contract until his 17th birthday, which falls in November, although he can sign a scholarship agreement with another club in the interim. Quina is likely to stay in England after moving to London three years ago. Born in Guinea-Bissau, in west Africa, he spent most of his childhood in Portugal, where he joined Benfica before attracting Chelsea’s attention. Although he prefers to operate as a No 10, and has been deployed in that position most regularly by Chelsea and Portugal, Quina can also play on either flank. His dribbling ability and close control have attracted the attention of several Premier League scouts.”

 

Matt Hughes (The Times, 24/3/16)

 

This depressing piece by the perpetually glum Mr Hughes was one of many on the subject to appear in this morning’s newspapers and, not surprisingly, they all took a similar cheap shot opportunity to disparage Chelsea’s Academy system by means of simplistic innuendo, leading their respective readerships by the nose[nothing] deep into stereotypical no-smoke-without-fire territory. Perish the thought that in any article such as this the reporter should at the very least make it clear why the player no longer wants to be at the club, if only to give the story some credence. No, let’s just insinuate that we should all ’read between the lines’ shall we - a bit like this… it’s obvious he’s unhappy, whether something personal went on behind the scenes, or whether Quina came to the conclusion that youth players have little chance of breaking through, is not known… but there’s no denying he’s ‘walked out’ and the systemic failure of youth development at Chelsea has to be at the very heart of the matter.

 

All too easy to write in such desultory fashion, isn’t it? Little wonder we’ve grown accustomed to a Fourth Estate feckless face and stick a ‘Lazy Journalism’ label firmly on whenever it has raised its ugly forehead. In this particular instance, to be fair, I suppose Matt Hughes has at least put in a modicum of effort, by trawling fan forums to find the current tide of growing discontent, before feeding it back to [what he perceives to be] the angry fan base - so well done you, as any lazy journalist’s editor might say. Except that here Hughes has not only misjudged the mood of many of us who have written with far greater insight on the subject, but also sought to embroider it with mindless drivel. For example:-

 

“Chelsea fear that he has already agreed to join one of their Barclays Premier League rivals. Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool have all monitored the midfielder’s performances for Chelsea Under-18.”

 

What a load of rubbish - if any of these ’usual suspects’ had ever ‘monitored’ Quina it wouldn’t have been while he was performing for our Under-18s, because he’s 16yrs of age and not even close to being a regular in the Development Squad. And truth be told, none of the so-called scouts will have ventured within woggle-waving distance of Cobham either, but hey, what’s the odd dropped Ging Gang Goolie between [far from] friendly reporters anyway, whether you’ve actually watch yer’ed the kid or not? Sadly, veracity doesn’t seem to matter to scribes like Matt Hughes - it’s the message that’s all-important and in this case it’s all about Chelsea being ’resigned’ and in ’fear’ of losing out, ’having invested three years’ developing a young prospect blessed with a ‘dribbling ability and close control’ (don’t they all come with these skills as standard anymore?) that you can guarantee has been taken on spec by the permanently morose and myopic hack - Domingos prefers to operate as a No 10 does he? Really? Who knew? Certainly not Mr Hughes, I’ll wager any money you like on that! 

 

Unfortunately in this day and age, even in The Times, authenticity bows down in the presence of prejudicial treatment, the basis of which is often unsubstantiated gossip, and the real point being rammed home here has nothing to do with appraising readers of  failure to develop talent and everything to do with an obvious desire to insinuate that a boy wonder is better off elsewhere, thereby fueling Chelsea fans existing discontent regarding Academy and [subsequent] loan issues. Strange then, that with so many other youngsters to report on, and all of them involved at numerous levels within our youth development system, the best the scribes could come up with [to criticise the club over] is an unsettled 16 year-old who appears to want to move onwards and upwards at a faster rate than his ability would appear to warrant. I can say no more, as I know little about him or his circumstances, and this Hughes offering has hardly made me any the wiser. 

 

All that can be said, and should have been, is that scores of Chelsea Academy kids who have yet to reach Quina’s advanced age are seemingly happy with their lot and there are many more at the same level as him and above who must also be just as satisfied with the progress they have made, otherwise the print world would have chosen a bigger stick to beat our system with. Doubting Dom is nothing more than an exception to an unwritten-about rule - that the vast majority of our Academy youngsters are doing just fine and are, in all likelihood, enjoying every minute of their football education at Cobham.    

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Edited March 24, 20169 yr by Dorset

A 16 year old isnt dependable? No

Vitesse must be gutted ...

 

Fair play to The Thunderer! - for assigning their chief football writer to report on what would normally have been regarded as a distinctly low key England Under-20s match against Canada at the weekend. Henry Winter duly provided a quality account of events, free from unfounded [but obviously hoped-for] Marcus Rashford hype, after the boy wonder spent a quiet time of it wedged deep in Fikayo Tomori’s pocket. No doubt colleague Matt Hughes would have skewed the story as best he could had he been sent out to do so, but fortunately Winter got the nod on this occasion and told us exactly how it was without a hint of bias, giving credit where it was due and acknowledging club affiliation every step of the way. Here are a few examples…

 

“Such is the interest in Rashford that MUTV took this under-20 international match live from Doncaster Rovers’ Keepmoat Stadium. Canada had certainly done their homework on the fleet-footed Rashford. Their left-sided centre half, Thomas Meilleur-Gigeuere, of Montreal II, was not the quickest but he read Rashford’s movement well.

 

Rashford tried to get on his shoulder, looking to run in behind, but Canada squeezed the space. Their other centre back, Chelsea’s imposing Fikayo Tomori, who broke Diego Costa’s nose in training, covered when required, again complicating life for Rashford. One Tomori challenge left Rashford rubbing his toes. Alphonso Davies, the Whitecaps II midfielder, also constantly dropped deep to restrict the supply to Rashford.”

 

Seven name checks for Rashford in the space of two paragraphs, but it is the two for Tomori that stand out, especially when the first is accompanied by an impressive, ego-boosting Diego Costa name drop. And there was even more favourable Chelsea referencing to come as a result of Casey Palmer being introduced in the second-half …

 

“After Marco Bustos extended Canada’s lead with a strong shot, England finally started exerting more sustained pressure. Kasey Palmer, the Chelsea forward, scored from a Rashford cutback. Rashford was hunting the equaliser and almost caught Pantemis out with a dipping shot.”

 

Indeed, a closing summary on the best England and Canadian youngsters, under the heading ‘Kids Are Alright’, includes both Chelsea youngsters and  reads as follows:-

 

Casey Palmer - England posed more of an attacking threat after the Chelsea forward’s second-half introduction. Scored to reduce the deficit and came close to a late equaliser.

 

Fikayo Tomori - The Chelsea defender and Canada captain, led by example in a stand-out defensive display.

 

It would be churlish [if somewhat presumptuous] not to take this offering for what it appears to be, something of a balancing-of-the-books piece following, as it does, hard on the heels of that Matt Hughes mumbo jumbo earlier in the week. Hopefully it is not too much to ask from The Times… but let’s have more of the same, please.  

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We all remember the hype around Leon Knight and more recently Freddie Adu... you can look at this list and see how many have made it household names. http://www.goal.com/en/news/3376/goalcom-youth-football/2011/01/01/2284652/goalcom-hot-100-the-young-stars-to-look-out-for-in-2011
I shan't be losing any sleep over Quina - well until he scores the goal that knocks us out of the Europa league group stage in 3 years time.