It has been a turbulent season for Chelsea Football Club as the reigning Premier League champions find themselves with no long-term manager, a vastly out-of-form squad and no silverware or titles to play for — so why are none of the club’s UEFA Youth League and Youth FA Cup champions being bled into the first team?
From the very first match of the season, a 2-2 draw at home to Swansea City, the atmosphere had already started to turn blue for Jose Mourinho and his champions. The Eva Caneiro debacle had certainly set the mood around Stamford Bridge for the remainder of Mourinho’s tenure.
With just nine Premier League fixtures remaining of the 2015-2016 Premier League season, Chelsea find themselves in tenth place on 40 points, nine points behind fifth-placed West Ham who occupy the Europa League spot and 11 points behind fourth-placed Manchester City who hold the last Champions League position. It is almost certain Chelsea will miss out on European football for the 2016-2017 season, the first time under Roman Abramovich’s 13-year tenure.
This was compounded with back-to-back cup exits; firstly against Paris Saint-Germain in last Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League second-leg home defeat, followed by Saturday’s FA Cup exit to Everton at Goodison Park with former Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku scoring a brace in the Toffee’s 2-0 victory.
The FA Cup tie was marred by the controversial ‘biting’ incident in which Diego Costa was accused of biting Gareth Barry on the neck. The Everton midfielder dismissed the accusation but the intent from Costa was apparent.
Lukaku’s firs goal came after showing great strength in fighting-off Bransilav Ivanovic, Cesar Azpilicueta and John Obi-Mikel to break into the box and turned Gary Cahill several times leaving the defender wrong-footed and firing past Thibaut Courtois. His second goal – although – not as impressive as his first summed up Chelsea’s wasteful youth setup.
Okay, Lukaku wasn’t brought through the youth setup from a young teenager, however, after being signed at 17 years of age from Anderlecht for a reported £20 million, you would have expected the club to have had a little more patience with a player who now sits on 25 goals this season. In comparison, Diego Costa – who Lukaku made way for in 2014 – had a terrible game, concerned more in displaying his out-of-control temper than putting the ball in the back of the net. It is almost a certainty that Costa’s tantrum-prone season is an alert to the Chelsea hierarchy and most-likely former club Atletico Madrid, that he no longer sees his future at Stamford Bridge.
At the time Lukaku left and Costa was brought in, Chelsea had already won the 2014 FA Youth Cup final and only Ruben Loftus-Cheeke has had any notable first-team experience since. With such a successful youth set-up the last notable first team graduate was John Terry who has won every available accolade with Chelsea and is likely to leave the club in the summer at the age of 35, after a glittering 480 games and 40 goals for the Blues.
Since Abramovich’s arrival, spending big, predominantly on strikers has been the quick fix to Chelsea’s solutions, the only notable long-term success being Didier Drogba. The big-money flops of Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Fernando Torres, Demba Ba and now Loic Remy, Radamel Falcao and Alexandre Pato have predominantly filled the first team squad and the substitutes bench over youngsters such as Daniel Sturridge, Victor Moses, Romelu Lukaku, Patrick Bamford and Bertrand Traoré – although Traoré has recently pipped the likes of Remy, Falcao and Pato as the second-choice striker.
After Mourinho was dismissed in December 2015 and Guus Hiddink returned for a second caretaker spell in charge, the first team squad had significantly improved. Yet this was still an opportunity to bring through the likes of Dominic Solanke – the UEFA Youth League’s top scorer – and youth captain Izzy Brown.
It would be far more understandable if Chelsea’s youth setup wasn’t a successful one but it is and it’s still improving. So surely the next progression for that successful youth squad is to be brought into the first team with now being the key period to do so. Many of the first team squad are unlikely to be around next season due to unhappiness, referring to Eden Hazard and Diego Costa and players such as Terry and Ivanovic who are on the downward slope after enduring their peaks. It is also the perfect time for the youth teams to be integrated into the first team for some experience as their isn’t anything left for Chelsea to play for, even the ‘highest finishing position’ financially, is of no concern to the football club with their billionaire-backing.
Chelsea’s talented stars lacked heart and desire at the start of the season and the youngsters hunger and desire after already winning many of the youth achievements could have and probably would have fired up some of the first team stalwarts.
