Or if they are indeed defensive midfielders, then playing them more regularly next to Matic, instead of the ageing Lampard, non-threatening Mikel, or ineffective Ramires could be a better option. Having said that, how awesome was Lampard yesterday - didn't look a day over 30.
Oh Im not saying it wouldnt be the better option, but that wont change the fact that they will be flogged. I am very disillusioned with our youth players. We get so many promising talents come through, they hit 19-20, hang about on the first team fringes for a couple seasons, then get sold to Stoke or Hull for £7-8m. Everytime someone says "[Insert name here] is a great prospect, he should be in the senior squad!" I take it with a pinch of salt. So many promising young'uns that have just been bleh, either mediocre or not given adequate opportunities, and we loan or flog em, for example, Jimmy Smith and Gael Kakuta.
Can't disagree with this, but the someone at the club needs to get to grips with the situation, as it is not only Ake and Chalobah, but you can probably throw Piazon, Kalas, and Courtois into that bucket as well. Courtois as we know is definitely good enough, so JM just needs the guts to play him instead of Cech, who is looking increasingly dodgy at crosses and corners. As for players like Boga... who knows.
Yup, it does get depressing. When you think that John Terry is the sole player to have established himself properly in our first XI, from our academy, in the last 20 years, it raises an eye brow or two, well and Jody Morris I guess. But so many have epic failed, Jon Harley and Mark Nicholls were two I especially remember from the 90's, both talked about in glowing terms, both had promising debuts. (I was at the game VS Coventry when Nicholls made his senior debut as a sub, we were drawing 1-1 and with 10 mins left he grabbed a brace and we won 3-1), then both just disappeared into obscurity, Harley ended up having a decent second tier career with Sheff Utd I think and Nicholls ended up at frikkin Aldershot Town?!?!
Haha John Harley had such a beautiful left foot! Kalas seems to be around the first team squad, i thought it was just because Luiz was injured but i noticed he was still on the bench last night too and got on for about 20 seconds. Isn't Ake part of our first team squad? I thought i saw it somewhere that Jose was happy to loan Bertrand out because he's got Ake as cover. Never know, we might get a couple of injuries and these two get some game time.
The mitigating factor is that Harley, Morris, and their ilk are all pre-Abramovich, when facilities were crap, scouting network non-existent, and the focus was purely on financial survival and a decent cup run. Quite frankly, the fact that JT emerged out of that setup was a miracle. The frustrating and damning thing is that for all the supposed investment in our academy post-Abramovich, JT remains the sole true 'graduate'. Well there's Bertrand I suppose, but he's not really starting choice standard if we're honest... and then Matic, the fact we were blind to his potential and had to effectively shell 30-35 mill to Benfica (on the basis that Luiz is now worth 30 mill) for him speaks volumes - a write off on the same order of magnitude as Shevchenko.
I do kind of agree with the general consensus regarding youth in that we should give them a chance, but let's be honest, how many have gone on to become amazing players? The only one I can think of is Matic and Terry - both of whom we have! Only thing we should be pissed off with was how we dealt with McEachran who I believe could've been brilliant if we kept Carlo on. United have been worse in my opinion purely do to the fact they didn't play Pogba! I think we will start to see more players being given a chance as I think Mourinho is here for a long period of time all going well and the fact we have some very exciting prospects in Piazon, Boga, Baker, Chalobah, Ake, Thorgan - the list goes on.
I would very much like to see how many of the players you just listed are still at Chelsea in 3 years time. I would say probably 1 (my money would be on Chalobah or Thorgan)
What we have to remember is that a lot of these youngsters are purely financial investments. Build up a monopoly on exciting youth products - if they prove to be a hit then fantastic, if not, flog them for profit. It is a business plan just as much as it is a team plan.
How right you are. Good as Azpi has been Cole should be played more from now on and Azpi/Ivan rotated. Along with Hazard and Oscar, they must be all getting a tad stale from playing all the time. There are plenty of games to mix things up.
Sure Ash can do a great job for us still. But do you think Iva or Azpi look tired????? Both are in great form at the mo
