After a meeting between Chelsea officials and Gael Kakuta this week, it seems there may be light at the end of the tunnel. The 19 year-old French winger, who is out of contract next summer, arrived back in London on Thursday for talks over a new deal, cutting short his international break. Reports in France this morning (emanating from L’Equipe) suggest that those talks lasted four hours and were ‘fruitful’,…
Reports emerging out of France today indicate that Gael Kakuta will return to London from international duty to discuss a new contract at Chelsea. The French Under-20 international featured last night against Montenegro and was due to continue his involvement during a training camp in Clairefontaine to take part in a friendly against Orléans tomorrow. However, he has been given permission to leave the team camp and head back to…
The past seven days have been amongst the most productive so far this season for Chelsea’s young loanees, with two players scoring their first goals of the season. Let’s delve in. With another week of double-header action, Jack Cork and Ben Gordon both used the extra match to find the back of the net, the latter for the first time as a professional. The left-back had come close to opening…
Chelsea’s tough 2010-11 academy season continued on Saturday morning with a frustrating 2-0 defeat at home to Fulham. Despite a hard-working performance in far from ideal circumstances, Dermot Drummy’s young charges were unable to get the upper hand on their opponents and ultimately came up short against a stronger unit. The team took on a more experienced look than last time out at Cobham against Crystal Palace, with Ben Sampayo…
Since losing 4-0 at Wolves last time out, there’s been a few bits and pieces of news on the Reserve team front, so we’ll take a look at what’s been going on, starting with today’s win over Bayern Munich. With the schedule for the second string still far from ideal, Chelsea have continued to look for friendlies against a wide range of opposition, and the first foreign opponent of this…
The first week of November was a quieter affair than usual on the loan front, with little by way of notable action. Nevertheless, it’s all here in detail as usual. Starting as ever in the Premier League, Michael Mancienne was limited to thirteen minutes as a substitute at Old Trafford as Wolves visited for the second time in a matter of weeks. Whereas the England Under-21 captain played the duration…
Chelsea’s unbeaten start to the 2010/11 reserve campaign came to a crashing halt on Monday evening at AFC Telford’s New Bucks Head. A rampant first half from Wolves led the way to a 4-0 demolition of Steve Holland’s side, which featured more experience and talent than had been available so far this season. Despite expecting a young team, similar to the one used against West Brom in a remarkable 5-4…
It’s been another up and down week for Chelsea’s young loanees, with some finding success, others taking a rare back seat, and one or two falling at the hands of questionable officiating. Just another seven days in football then. We’ll start at the top, and with the good news. Michael Mancienne came off the bench for Wolverhampton Wanderers a week after being forced to sit out against parent club Chelsea…
A stunning strike from Todd Kane in the closing stages secured a share of the points for a youthful Chelsea Under-18 team on Saturday morning in a 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace at Cobham. Dermot Drummy found starting berths for five schoolboys in his starting eleven – including Arsenal trialist Lewis Kinsella – and introduced three more as second half substitutes. George Saville – the only second year scholar involved…
Chelsea’s loan ranks swelled by one more this past week, and an immediate impression was made. Conor Clifford signed an initial one-month youth loan at League One side Plymouth Argyle and just 24 hours after joining up with his new colleagues at Home Park, he put in a performance worthy of Man of the Match in a 2-1 home win over Huddersfield Town. Wearing the number 7 shirt and replacing…