Five goals and two assists in thirteen matches, England Under-16 captain (complete with goal and assists), and a place on the reserve team substitutes bench aged 15. It’s not been a bad 2011-12 campaign so far for schoolboy Ruben Loftus-Cheek, and whilst coverage of Under-16 players should be tempered, the young midfielder makes an impact so often that he’s hard to ignore. For the best part of 18 months through…
With both the youth and reserve teams on a winter break, it’s time to take a look at some of this season’s key players and look at how they’ve been developing. The first in a series over the New Year period is Amin Affane. — As a general rule of thumb, a second-year scholar stands out amongst his younger team-mates in academy football. He is typically a bit bigger, a…
The Christmas edition of The Loan Report is something of an abridged one as a number of Chelsea’s young loan stars are spending the holiday season away from football, with their leagues enjoying winter breaks. Matej Delac and Ceske Budejovice went on hiatus earlier in the month and in the last week the Croatian stopper was joined by Jeffrey Bruma, Tomas Kalas, Ulises Dávila and Thibaut Courtois. Their league campaigns…
French Under-21 international Gael Kakuta will attempt to kick-start his career once again in 2012 as he will join French club Dijon FCO on loan from Chelsea, according to French sporting media today. Kakuta has spent the first half of this season at Bolton Wanderers but despite scoring in his first start for the club, he has been unable to work his way into Owen Coyle’s plans. Wanderers have struggled…
A spectacular brace from Nathaniel Chalobah ensured a superb end to Chelsea’s 2011 calendar as the Blues secured an impressive 4-0 victory away to Arsenal. The defender-cum-midfielder, who only turned 17 last Monday, opened the scoring in the first half with a cheeky backheel and after Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with his fourth in as many games, Chalobah put the seal on things with a beautifully flighted free kick….
With the season drawing towards the winter break across Europe, this week’s loan report will be longer than many in the coming weeks as many leagues draw a line under the first half of the 2011-12 season. Tomas Kalas and Jeffrey Bruma have been amongst the highlights of the campaign so far for Chelsea’s young loanees and both were in action at the weekend for one last time in 2011…
OK, so Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Wigan on Saturday evening wasn’t exactly ridiculous, but a collection of errors saw the Blues contrive to throw away what should have been a routine three points. After a fantastic performance against Manchester City on Monday night, a trip to a cold and snowy Wigan was always bound to be somewhat anticlimactic but from a position of relative strength after Daniel Sturridge’s second half…
Chelsea’s 2011-12 FA Youth Cup campaign got underway in successful fashion on Wednesday night with a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Doncaster Rovers at Staines Town’s Wheatsheaf Park. In keeping with last season’s form in the competition, the Blues went behind to a very early goal but responded well and goals from John Swift and Lucas Piazon – his first for the club – ensured safe passage into the fourth round….
With a number of young Chelsea players currently battling a range of injuries, it’s time for a brief look into how the stricken lads are getting on in their fights back towards full fitness. Centre-back Daniel Pappoe will miss out on captaining Adie Viveash’s team in their FA Youth Cup tie at home to Doncaster Rovers tomorrow night with a knee problem suffered away to Liverpool in late October. He…
The FA Youth Cup has been kind to Chelsea in the past few years as the Blues have won the competition once in addition to (ultimately unsuccessful) runs to both the final and semi-final. The 2011-12 campaign gets underway this week with a ‘home’ tie against Doncaster Rovers, to be played at Staines Town’s Wheatsheaf Park ground. It’s a somewhat unusual choice of venue, but FA regulations demand that matches…