Month: December 2011

You don’t find too many £18m signings playing reserve team football, but Romelu Lukaku is something of a special case. Much is expected of the gigantic 18 year-old forward, but for the majority of his first few months in England he has most often been found playing for Dermot Drummy’s second string team. With an array of senior forwards ahead of him in the pecking order, playing time was always…

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…

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….