As much as we Chelsea fans are happy with Nemanja Matic coming back home to Stamford Bridge, this situation clearly spells out the rot that is the club’s youth system and agenda. Our impatience with our young players has made us flip that cheque book unnecessarily.
A quick recap on this Matic situation for those still in the dark. Matic was part of the cash plus player payment that aided the acquisition of David Luiz from Benfica. Prior to that, Matic made two appearances for Chelsea. Now you are in the know zone.
Should the youngsters sign for Chelsea or should they opt for a club where their professional growth is guaranteed? Should Chelsea scrap their youth system and opt to elevate their spending prowess? Is the emphasis on winning trophies rendering Chelsea’s youngsters disadvantaged? A million and one questions all aiding the cry of our youngsters in our beloved club.
A point of clarification. I am not opposed to the Matic purchase. Hell yeah, if he is the key to at least one trophy this season, then Jose should sign him as earliest as possible. He is a player of proven quality, mostly his defensive abilities, precision and an admired work rate. With Mourinho’s tactics in mind, he will be a quality buy. A quality pivot player.
Matic purchase is an embarrassing statement with respect to the youth structures and youth development present at Chelsea. It clearly exposes our impatience, lack of trust and an insufficient youth agenda. It is a warning to other youngsters of the treatment they are bound to receive at Chelsea. Is there an established player that rose through the ranks and made a mark in the footballing world from our academy apart from John Terry? Isn’t the answer that obvious?
Embarrassing? In what ways? Let me break it down.
He was a young player seeking an avenue for his professional growth. He signed for Chelsea with that hope in mind. He signed, according to him, with the best club and a club with a better youth system that will aid his professional growth exactly as he had envisioned it. What followed after that is what every youngster experiences at the club.
Were it not for Benfica that opted to invest in time and develop the player, would we be in a dire need of signing him back? Would we be wasting money had we developed the player at the club? The likes of Sturridge, Kakuta, Lukaku, Piazon among others is a clear example of our lack of trust and impatience towards the younger blood. Look at how well Lukaku and Sturridge are performing for other clubs. Don’t you wish they were doing the same at Chelsea?
Lets hope that with Jose Mourinho back in charge of things at Stamford Bridge, this is a problem that gets eliminated in the years to come.
KTBFFH!
~Santus
Our U21’s and youth are the envy of the league! Winners of the FAYC too. It’s a BIG step up from youth to Prem level, and when they are ready they’ll step in. Mastic is a world class player that we didn’t want to include before, though Liuz was a priority – a proven coup.
José is back mate! Calm down and stop reading the newspapers if you want to keep an original thought in your head!
In José we trust.
We weren’t winner last season we lost to Norwich we won it 2 years ago
Will it change though..
Mr M is just expected to win trophy.There should be someone at club experienced at developing players.
I like this write up, the trust has always been staring at us. we have a great bunch of talented youngsters in our youth setup. if Arsenal had either Lewis Baker or Always in their ranks, one would have been a first team regular. Jose really can’t nurture young talents neither can he risk playing them in his team .
We talk too much chelsea fans there is noting they we do 4 us that we er not going 2 complain if is about promote younger player then nobody we buy any player from any team so my advice is that let give them benefit of dt chelsea 4 life
i’d rather chelsea waste the money for the fans than being corrupted
I think this article exaggerates too much because the player in question Matic is still not a our player since there is nothing concrete and official as at now. I think the writer is just exaggerating overhere. I really don’t know why we have too much talents on loan, I think the way forward as a club is to blend both experienced and inexperienced players so that the inexperienced ones can learn from the experienced ones and eventually gain experienced this is a good project especially on the long term.
I doubt Mourinho will eliminate this problem as the writer points out because Mourinho as we all know likes buying but would have been much better to develop our own talents undoubtedly. Other clubs does for example Arsenals.
Ur very on point written dis i just hope the special one will specialize on d youth rather than buying the establish players who at the later stage will threaten to leave if they are not given the much needed playing time.
Our youth not getting the chance needed to proceed to the senior team will be the things of the past if the special as it going can give them a benefit of a doubt by giving the chance to play and develop their games.
Good analysis by the writer.Its just as if the writer is reading my mind.I really pitied the likes of Mceachran,Piazon,Marin,Chalobah and others coz they’ll never break into the 1st team.We’re too impatience with our youngsters,and that’s very sad.Just look at the situation of KDB now,its very certain that he will leave.We have around 24 players on loan and we’re still buying!
Very good work done by Jose. Sending young players to teams that give regular playing time better than benching them or giving 2 or 3 starting chances in a season. JM knows clearly this. Look z situation to DBR, Mata … Trust with Jose! Fantastic work! The only problem is believing & starting z season with z false strikers…
As soon as the team is stabilised, some young players may be introduced. Its usually difficult for competitive teams to develop young players, playing them in top competitions. Sir Alex Fergusen had Welbeck but got Van Persie. Most of them will be sold and bought back later. As long as they can obtain home grown status before they are sold, it should be fine. They would be sold with a buy back clause. Some of them may develop on loan and be lucky.
God, where on earth did u get dat courage rm to write on dis long awaited article?. gud one, I really luv dis article. tanks!
I follow the portuguese league so I saw the incredible development of Matic. Even in his first seasonat SLB he wasn’t the first choise, normally he was Javi Garcia sub tough I think Matic is a far better player. Then he got the undisputed spot in the team that we would never get at CFC when city bought Garcia and grew amazingly as player. I think a buy back clause is a great solution to certain players because the player gets an opportunity to grow and CFC would get the chance to get the player with a smaller profit to the club that sells it. It’s a win-win to all the parts. We can’ forget that can only play 11 and we have already our share of youngsters and still building a team. Of course we can have on or two youngsters in first team but this things take time and we can’t rush it. I believe Jose found a much better structured youth sistem than the first time (and he has credit because he has helped building it) and he’s planning to take advantage of that. Now that Matic is confirmed I think he’ll fit as a glove in this team and I’m looking forward to see him with Ramires, I think they’ll match lovely on the midfield. I’m a bit sad for Obi Mikel (love the guy) because I think he’ll lose a lot of space in the team. But no matter who plays, KTBFFH
You have a valid point. But I don’t agree with you absolutely. We boughtt Matic when he was 20 for €4m. Used him as a €5M make weight in Luiz deal. He was not rated highely by us and the bank owning 25% of his value as they sold their value to Benfica for €400,000 (they would have made over €7M). What I am saying is Benfica have the luxery of experimenting with somany players until they hit a jackpot because they are not expected to win it all and they are a selling club. Chelsea’s model is different. We want to win. And our academy players must play to our standard if they want to have a senior career at the bridge. Thank you.
Maybe I didn’t make my point right because I agree with you. I support the policy to sell some youngsters who aren’t going to play to “smaller” clubs, with a buy back clause in the contract. In the case of Benfica, they are pressured to win domestically, though in Europe it’s a differente story, but in Portugal they have, with Porto, the biggest budget with significant difference for the others.If the player is valid, with a buy back clause we have an advantage to get the player back. As you say, CFC has the pressure to win, and can’t “burn” youngster out. Appreciate the responses, we should keep calm and support the team… it is in good hands. KTBFFH!!!
@ maritimo,jose cant guarantee any1 automatic place in d startn 11.look at schurl,bryune & eto.playn 4 benefica isnt de same wit playn 4 cfc.1st lets see weda he can handle d pressure dat come with playn 2 win at all cost.so dont write mikel,lamp & rami off cos deze men arent push overs.i hope he brings healthy competition among these players.
I know that playing for Benfica isn’t the same that playing for CFC, but Benfica has the pressure to win the portuguese league every year, even if Porto is better organized. Matic has become a beast of a player and I think he’ll become a key CFC player, and he will make a great miedfield with Rami (I can’t see where I wrote they are pushovers), since they complement each other, on my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, I love Mikel as a player, but I think with Matic his space will be smaller in the team. It’s only a feeling and I hope that he will work very hard and win his spot, as it will only benefit CFC. Super Frankie earned the right to retire as blue and I think he must play less minutes, to play at top level. With MVG coming back, it will be a great fight to play regularly. I have a feeling that Nemanja will be the first choice, but I’ll always support whoever is on the field. Even a certain ‘Nino’ whom I never liked since his atletico’s time, I will always support him since he wears the blue shirt. Let’s see if we can get Shaw because we must start thinking in a Cole’s replacement. The team is shaping up and I have great hopes for them. KTBFFH!!!
Pls if u dnt knw wht to say just go back to bed nd sleep ok,the same youth nd academy policy is wht Arsenal has been surfering for since 9yrs ago without a single trophy,imagine if it was Chelsea,poeple like will still come here nd saying rubbish things against the manager… Pls football is for matured men not for teenagers ok!
We need the youth players but the step up is to big. Reason we have link with Vitesse is because that is like the middle ground along with the Championship that is the middle ground for youth to the PL. With Mou wanting to change to 4-3-3 watching Romeu and mcEachran come back in the squad to fill out those CM places and watch as we use our youth better. We either have players to young or the players right age just not enough experience
With the FFP about to set in, Chelsea’s Strategy is to ensure we buy most of the best talents around and keep them by either loaning them out or via buy back clause to keep our pool of exciting talent.
Lukaku and Courtois are looking the part of world class talent, Romelu leading Merseyside Blue to a top 4 fight while Thibaut has ensured Atletico never felt the loss of De Gea.
Vitesse is contesting for the Dutch League, all thanks to Chelsea loanees; Piazon (Top Scorer), Atsu, Aantholt, Kakuta, Hutchison, Bertrand Traore.
McEachran, Omeruo, Romeu, Chalobah and Wallace, they are all promising.
Chelsea has got the next generation of world beaters locked down. No sweat.
Looking to acquire future CB leaders- Mangala and Zouma. Get them Emenalo