Excellent today, what a strike for that 1st goal.

 

 

 

Needs to stop taking penalties, doesn't look convincing at all.  Give them to the left back (either Chilwell or Alonso), or even CHO.

 

 

Jorgi, Lukaku, Alonso, Chilwell, James at a minimum should be ahead of him in the pen list.

Agree on the penalties.  When the camera zooms on his face, he looks very uncertain, and his penalties reflect that.  Relatively soft strikes, easy height for keeper.  The Norwich retake wasn't particularly good.  We've been spoiled with years of Frank, Frank, Dennis, Jimmy, Eden and Jorgi taking them.

 

It is quite ridiculous that he was only the fifth-most impressive academy product on the pitch tonight.

Something special is happening at the Bridge.

6 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

It is quite ridiculous that he was only the fifth-most impressive academy product on the pitch tonight.

Something special is happening at the Bridge.

Two decades ago someone did a fantastic job behind the scenes with our academy set up and they will never get the headlines for it. I still don't see the media showing the love for this generation of academy players that have actually won things, unlike what happened a few seasons ago with Spurs. 

Indeed. What happens when the academy products consistently outshine the big-fee signings? It's like a strange inverse of the Galácticos policy.

Hudson-Odoies y Ziyeches?

3 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Indeed. What happens when the academy products consistently outshine the big-fee signings? It's like a strange inverse of the Galácticos policy.

Hudson-Odoies y Ziyeches?

Gallaghers y Werners

We are increasingly on the verge of what Barcelona were doing in the late 00s - producting world-class first-teamers from the academy, while buying sensibly to fill in gaps.

Things go spectacularly wrong when you try and do it the other way - buying the galacticos and trying to plug the gaps with academy kids - as Real Madrid and now ironically Barcelona have found out the hard way.

8 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Two decades ago someone did a fantastic job behind the scenes with our academy set up and they will never get the headlines for it. I still don't see the media showing the love for this generation of academy players that have actually won things, unlike what happened a few seasons ago with Spurs. 

I spoke to someone on social media about 10 years ago who said our kids would eventually have us dominating the league like United did.

9 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Two decades ago someone did a fantastic job behind the scenes with our academy set up and they will never get the headlines for it. I still don't see the media showing the love for this generation of academy players that have actually won things, unlike what happened a few seasons ago with Spurs. 

The media will always be generally anti-Chelsea. We have so many academy graduates and English players in our setup, however we have that hatred consensus from a lot of other fans/media. We are setting an example and doing what Ajax have done for years, whilst being a major force on all fronts. 

9 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Two decades ago someone did a fantastic job behind the scenes with our academy set up and they will never get the headlines for it. I still don't see the media showing the love for this generation of academy players that have actually won things, unlike what happened a few seasons ago with Spurs. 

Its not a coincidence that these grads all typically joined around the time Cobham was built. World class facilities and coaches from a young age create world class players. 

There are people out there who will say we bought up all the good youngsters and this is inevitable. Which just isn't true. We turned great youngsters into world class pros through investment. And we are one of the main reasons the English national team has improved, roman pumping investment into the youth game forced the hands of clubs around the country. Now we see the results. 

Think I read that the sales of academy prospect over the summer was equivalent to how much the academy has cost us over 10 years. Incredibly ownership. 

10 hours ago, Argo said:

I spoke to someone on social media about 10 years ago who said our kids would eventually have us dominating the league like United did.

Wasn't quite 10 years ago but I've had the same experience with my mates. I told them we would be set up with fantastic young players from our academy. There was so much talent pumping through our youth teams. 

22 minutes ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Wasn't quite 10 years ago but I've had the same experience with my mates. I told them we would be set up with fantastic young players from our academy. There was so much talent pumping through our youth teams. 

There's an Arsenal supporter out there who is still bitter about my prediction (about 10 years ago) that his club would be top again, with the talented youth they had. He probably doesn't recall I didn't actually set a timeline  because during our conversation on the tube his head was occasionally in a plastic carrier bag throwing up having drowned his sorrows   I'm such a sweetheart, I kept handing him paper handkerchiefs and eventually some chewing gum.

Edited November 24, 20214 yr by Valerie

On 24/11/2021 at 12:04, Valerie said:

There's an Arsenal supporter out there who is still bitter about my prediction (about 10 years ago) that his club would be top again, with the talented youth they had. He probably doesn't recall I didn't actually set a timeline  because during our conversation on the tube his head was occasionally in a plastic carrier bag throwing up having drowned his sorrows   I'm such a sweetheart, I kept handing him paper handkerchiefs and eventually some chewing gum.

*checks table*

LOL

Edited November 27, 20214 yr by TheChelseaBlues

On 24/11/2021 at 08:28, bisright1 said:

Think I read that the sales of academy prospect over the summer was equivalent to how much the academy has cost us over 10 years. Incredibly ownership. 

That's a great sound bite !

The investment in the academy system could end up being the greatest legacy of Abramovich's ownership.

The fact that we're starting to compare our academy system to that of Ajax goes to show how much progress we've made in this department in the past decade or two.

It's brilliant on so many fronts:

• We have players coming through the system that we regard as our "own". It enhances that connection between the club and the supporters.
• It saves us spending excessive money in the transfer market.
• It's a sustainable way to run a football club.
• We're developing a reputation of being a club that knows to how harness and develop youth to ensure they have strong footballing careers. This makes us an enticing club for future prospects.

48 minutes ago, Jezz said:

The investment in the academy system could end up being the greatest legacy of Abramovich's ownership.

The fact that we're starting to compare our academy system to that of Ajax goes to show how much progress we've made in this department in the past decade or two.

It's brilliant on so many fronts:

• We have players coming through the system that we regard as our "own". It enhances that connection between the club and the supporters.
• It saves us spending excessive money in the transfer market.
• It's a sustainable way to run a football club.
• We're developing a reputation of being a club that knows to how harness and develop youth to ensure they have strong footballing careers. This makes us an enticing club for future prospects.

Best not to mention the A word while @Valerie is about, you will awaken the kraken...

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Best not to mention the A word while @Valerie is about, you will awaken the kraken...

Too late...

 

Hoping Mount starts the next game, I'm sure he knows his level has dropped and he will want to rectify this. Not to mention he knows the manager very well what he wants from his fwds I think Mount will nail down a position in that front 3 soon enough 

1 minute ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Hoping Mount starts the next game, I'm sure he knows his level has dropped and he will want to rectify this. Not to mention he knows the manager very well what he wants from his fwds I think Mount will nail down a position in that front 3 soon enough 

I hope so too but he is not a solution to our goal scoring issues. Mason has many tools in his Arsenal but being a top goalscorer is not one of them. 

If he plays it needs to be with Lukaku and Pulisic as they are goal scorers. Rest of our forwards are not. Why when you start CHO, Timo and Zyiech you make few chances and never look like scoring.

3 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I hope so too but he is not a solution to our goal scoring issues. Mason has many tools in his Arsenal but being a top goalscorer is not one of them. 

If he plays it needs to be with Lukaku and Pulisic as they are goal scorers. Rest of our forwards are not. Why when you start CHO, Timo and Zyiech you make few chances and never look like scoring.

I believe that is perhaps the only variation we are yet to see with Rom and Mount I could be wrong I think there was brief period with Timo but I think everyone has played with these two except Christian and on paper that looks an exciting prospect.

1 minute ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I believe that is perhaps the only variation we are yet to see with Rom and Mount I could be wrong I think there was brief period with Timo but I think everyone has played with these two except Christian and on paper that looks an exciting prospect.

We started off the season with Rom replacing the injured CP, and joined by Mount and Kai. Mason tried to find Rom, although James seemed best at it. Kai completely ignored him and looked for another else or to try so Fifa skills.

Think it was said before Rom get injured Kai had barely played a pass to him.

11 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I hope so too but he is not a solution to our goal scoring issues. Mason has many tools in his Arsenal but being a top goalscorer is not one of them. 

If he plays it needs to be with Lukaku and Pulisic as they are goal scorers. Rest of our forwards are not. Why when you start CHO, Timo and Zyiech you make few chances and never look like scoring.

I think when he and Pulisic came on the movement was suddenly better and Pulisic created that chance that Rudiger blasted away.

Ziyech creates too but Mount is more direct so for me it looks like Mount wastes less attacks than Ziyech.