Comings And Goings For Young Left-Backs

January 6, 2011

Amongst the media furore about Carlo Ancelotti’s future, there has actually been stuff worth reporting on today. Chelsea are considerably well stocked in the left-back department and today have made decisions on the short-term futures of two of their hopeful prospects. First, in a move which has been rumoured for the past week, Ben Gordon is set to join Scunthorpe United until the end of the season, having spent the…

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Battling Borini

January 3, 2011

Some say that a measure of a man is how he deals with adversity. If you subscribe to that particular view, Fabio Borini has grown up a lot in the first half of the 2010-11 season. The Italian Under-21 forward broke into Carlo Ancelotti’s first team squad last season, making eight appearances in his debut campaign. Labelled by some – including Ancelotti himself – as an interesting prospect, his second…

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Safe Hands

December 31, 2010

Most Chelsea fans, whether they’ll admit it or not, almost take Petr Cech for granted. The Czech custodian has been first choice at Stamford Bridge for six years since joining from Rennes, suffering his fair share of injuries along the way, but in 2010-11 he has been back to somewhere near his best form. At 28, he has many, many years ahead of him, but that doesn’t mean that the…

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The Loan Report: December 13-30

December 30, 2010

The final loan report of the year takes in a fortnight of action, as last week’s was skipped due to many matches falling foul of the weather. Nonetheless, there has been plenty to catch up on, so we’ll dive straight in at the top, with Michael Mancienne at Wolves. Unfortunately, the England Under-21 captain has been sidelined since December 4th with a knee injury, one which has led to Chelsea…

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The Definition Of A Must-Win Game

December 29, 2010

It might be slightly premature to make such claims about a match, but as Bolton visit Stamford Bridge tonight, one thing is clear. As the Premier League season reaches the midway mark, Chelsea’s 19th fixture of the campaign carries more significance and importance than any which has gone before it. Sure, there have been tougher opponents, but with 2010 drawing to an end, Carlo Ancelotti and company must draw on…

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Arsenal – What Went Wrong?

December 28, 2010

OK, so it’s not necessarily just the Arsenal defeat where things have gone wrong recently. One win since mid November – and that merely a late one in a below-par outing against MSK Zilina – has left Blues fans reeling at the club’s worst run of form for over a decade, and has left a number of questions in need of an answer. Is it an issue with squad depth?…

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George’ll Fix It For You

December 23, 2010

In the continuation of our look at some of the key performers from the first half of this year’s reserve and youth campaign, we taken a look at George Saville. Alongside yesterday’s feature Todd Kane, George is the only other player to have a 100% appearance record in the Under-18 league, and he too has featured in a number of different roles so far. A left-back for much of his…

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Kane Proving More Than Able

December 22, 2010

Part of a young player’s development is understanding and experiencing different positions on the pitch. Many an individual will spend time working on and playing in an unfamiliar role to expand their knowledge of the game, and how another player in the team will see things from ther place. In the first of a series of looks at members of the youth and reserve teams who have performed well in…

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Chelsea Sign Young Dutch Starlet

December 21, 2010

In a move which has been rumoured since November, Feyenoord today confirmed that 15 year-old Nathan Aké will join Chelsea next summer. Leo Beenhakker, Technical Director at the De Kuip side, revealed that Nathan had sealed the move, and indeed, despite interest from elsewhere (most notably Manchester City), he only ever had eyes for the Blues. In an interview with Algemeen Dagblad, Beenhakker said: “I talked with Nathan and his…

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Don’t Dream It’s Over – Beyond the Scholarship

December 20, 2010

Somewhere in the region of a dozen schoolboys have featured for Chelsea’s academy team so far this season. Many, if not all of those, will go on to secure scholarships with the club going forward, as they continue their footballing development. For others, however, this time of year will be an uncertain one. Staff at Cobham will be deciding upon who will be offered a two-year academy deal (typically at…

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