The young player situation at Chelsea!
Hello and welcome to the Chelsea news podcast with me your host Jack and in todays episode we will be talking about how Chelsea should embrace the new youth players at the club and everything about youth players at the club right now.
The first reason as to why I think Chelsea should embrace the new youth players at the club is because this season is already somewhat of a write off for Chelsea with the club in transition. This summer will prove to be decisive for Chelsea regardless of how the transfer market goes for them. Reluctance to move will be costly. This is the last year of Italian midfield maestro Jorginho and failure to replace him, and really overhaul the whole midfield will mean even more hurt for the club. Work is starting already in terms of replacing the aging players in the team and replacing them with new ones but the thinking simply isn’t joined up. If you look at the additions that the club is bringing in, they are all young exciting players from all across the globe whereas really, Chelsea should be looking for exciting youth players that can be both great now and in the future, with a prime example being Jude Bellingham. Bellingham has been an absolute star at Borrusia Dortmund and has shown himself to be one of the best young players on the planet during both his World Cup campaign with England and his club form despite him only being 19 years old at the time of this writing. Subsequently, many of the biggest clubs in Europe are after him. And Chelsea should be at the front of that queue. He is the type of ambitious, statement of intent signing that I expect the club to be making under new owner Todd Boehly. He is already one of the best players in the world and on his current trajectory, the sky is the limit for him.
And I mean this as no disservice to the players we are currently signing, as they are all great players in their own rights, each with world class talents, but we need players who can tick the boxes of being both for the here and now and for the future. Our midfield is the section that needs the most work and is the one that our owners seem to be focused on at the minute, currently trying to see if they can sign World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez from Benfica. And despite him being the calibre of player that we should be looking for and trying to bring in I quite honestly have some reservations as to the price tag. 127 million euros is the quoted fee, which is over his release clause as Chelsea are hoping that this would allow them to structure the deal favourably for the club. But if Chelsea simply used that 127 million euros, and possibly a little more, they could buy Jude Bellingham and secure their midfield for years to come.
These younger players that the club have splashed out on are of good quality yes, but, coming to the true point of todays podcast is why should the club buy them if their only use is to sit on the bench? Carney Chuckwumeka has joined the club recently for a fee of about 20 million pounds and never really seems to feature in Matchday squads, only really being used in behind closed doors friendlies, where he always seems to impress. The point I’m really trying to address here is that if Graham Potter is world renowned for being this experimental, exciting coach that tries new players, new plans and everything that we have been promised as Chelsea fans, then where is it? Chelsea are falling apart currently and have looked dismal in some of his last games and so where is the change? Why isn’t Potter trying something new and bringing on the youth players that the club have spent so much money on?
A young player that Potter will have to start is one that the club have already confirmed is coming in the summer of 2023 and that is Christopher Nkunku, the RB Leipzig forward. He has one of the highest goal contributions in the world currently and will join the club for a reasonable fee, given his talents, of around 60-70 million euros. The Frenchman will bolster Chelsea’s attack and will help Chelsea transition away from some of their older players up front such as Hakim Ziyech to him. There have been question marks surrounding how he will fit into this current system as at RB Leipzig under their current boss he almost plays as like a Centre forward, which is a role that isn’t really used at Chelsea. Perhaps there could be a change of system at the club and Chelsea could play a bit more of a fluid forward three with two centre forwards and one striker which could then give Kai Havertz one of his more preferred positions as well as potentially opening up Lukaku to returning to the fold as a first team player. And in that you could either start a Havertz or Armando Broja up front as the number 9 to lead the line and instantly that strike force looks significantly more impressive than it currently does. But really a shake up of any sorts would be nice. Chelsea have looked flat in attack, not creating enough chances, not finishing well enough and overall have not had an impressive season.
New, younger players need to be implemented in order to breath new life into this team, almost in the way that Frank Lampard did in his stint as Chelsea manager, by bringing through the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Fikayo Tomori and more. There needs to be that new generation of young talent coming from Cobham or wether they be bought playing in order for them to showcase their talents.
And whilst i was writing and recording this podcast script, Graham Potter has showcased Chelsea’s youth talent in a 1-0 loss against Manchester City in which the young players were very good including a great display from Academy left back Lewis Hall and a good display from Carey Chuckwumeka which saw him hit the post and generally perform well in his attacking role. We also saw Omari Hutchinson play after Aubameyang (who was subbed on himself) was subbed off in the final minutes and we saw the Cobham boy shine during whatever little time he had on the pitch. All of the Chelsea academy and youth players performed excellently and that is simply just a taster of what is to come. It is yet another reminder of their quality and how good they are as well as how they should be playing regularly for the first team.
Anyway thank you for listening to the Chelsea News Podcast with me your host Jack and thank you for listening to todays episode about the younger players at Chelsea Football Club and why Graham Potter should trust them. What do you think about it all? Should we be going after these young players? Is Potter the man for the job? What should Chelsea be doing? Leave it in the comments section! Thanks for listening, goodbye!
