Abraham and Loftus Cheek called up to the senior squad for the first time ahead of the upcoming friendlies. Whatever the opinion of our current national side it's an outstanding achievement for both. The highest level of sport you can reach is to play for your country so it'll do wonders for their confidence. Hopefully they get some game time to show what they can do!
Terrific for both players , embarrassing for Chelsea, Abramovich and his Board, and maybe even a little bit so for Conte. Shows the utter stupidity of not only our youth system, which is nothing more than an Accounting operation to increase the cash flow, but the lack of vision and intent of the owner. I am increasingly convinced that there IS no plan for the future, there IS no intent to build a great Team and Club, just a desire for ever more of the instant gratification that money can buy.
In total agreement with this. The amount of talent our academy has produced in the last 10 years is staggering, yet none of them end up staying at Chelsea or becoming useful members of our squad. Its a money spinner....and it pisses me off.
I think the academy deserves huge credit for the amount of players they produce that play at a professional level. But the links to our first team are non existent and that's frustrating. I don't know who's responsible for that, probably more than one person. I get that they use it to make money but instead of doing that I'd prefer us to save the money what we're investing from the academy and just play the academy players a bit!
Great for the experience and confidence of both players.I actually believe these 2 WILL be back and in the first team soon enough.
I think you are on the money. If one of these 2 don't make it, no kid with half a brain but plenty of talent would come near Chelsea.
the cynic in me thinks that Tammy especially has been called up in order to give him a cap to ward off any interest from other countries. He's not done enough to be an England player yet by a long shot. Good luck to him though and certainly one to watch for the future.
Who do you think in the FA would work out this scenario? My opinion is that the FA and their appointees are far more forward looking with youngsters than their Chelsea counterparts. Tammy is obviously ready to be tested at a higher level. It should be at PL level, but Chelsea haven't got the balls to do it. The FA have got **** all other choices and are desperate for anyone with talent. Win/ win for Tammy , and I hope he smashes it. If I were him I'd run as far and as fast as I can from Chelsea. No future for talented kids as long as Abramovich pulls the strings.
yup. Surprised we keep coming up with these gems, not that we ever utilise them. You'd think that after Bertrand, Lukaku and De Bruyne, all youths would be avoiding Chelsea like the plague. Bertrand is still the most baffling to me, I can understand selling Lukaku I guess, and even though I didn't agree with selling De Bruyne, he hadn't really been tested at the highest level much with us (Even though we all can see the player he has become. But Bertrand, guy was a ready made Ashley Cole replacement, he had played (very well I should add) in a CL final for us, and was ready to take the mantle when Cole moved on.....was ****ing stupid decision to sell him.
That's exactly how I saw it. Brilliant display by a youngster worthy of a CL medal. Comes back to the Bridge, and heave ho off you go. Went to an ordinary club for bugger all fee and KAPOW in the England squad. This bloke was a walk up replacement for Ashley Cole, absolutely no fee. So what the **** happened? Not a big enough name for Roman, who only talks to Megastars... Bodinki, we are in the same wavelength mate.
Mmmm....was Bertrand really that good though?? He played well in the C.L final but as a 2nd left back masquerading as a left winger and covered by Ashley Cole in an ultra defensive formation. He did well but lets not get carried away. He wasn't then and isn't now anywhere near Cole's level so I think there is a case to try and not go backwards with your first team. I'd have been happy with him as a back up but he was 25 when he left and wanted first team football. The inclusion in the England squad means very little. This is the worst England squad I can remember. Lukaku is wildly over rated as the last few weeks are showing. Not a world class player at all. I think everyone agreed it was good business at the time but he did well at Everton and United (over) paying 90 odd million makes our 10 million odd profit look poor business. De Bruyne is definitely one that got away. I fully blame Jose and De Bruyne's attitude (at the time at least) for that. Christensen and Courtois are the successes. Lets hope some more come through but of all the players we've let go, only De Bruyne would get in our 11.
Agree with this,feel KDB was the only real mistake.Bottom line is if the manader feels they're good enough they will stay and play.
Is it the managers decision though? We saw with what happened in the summer with Matic that Conte doesn't have the final say in who gets flogged.
Matic wanted to go.Chalobah and Ake were not good enough imo.The Manager must have had some input with these decisions.I feel RLC and Tammy will both be back and theres a couple more in the squad that are very promising.