Two years after visiting darkest France in Périgord to catch a glimpse of Chelsea’s young players in an exhibition game against FC Bergerac Perigord, I’ve been immersed into French Brittany to follow the progress of Chelsea’s U23 team. First, it’s important to emphasis that the sarcastic jibe of “loan army” is growing increasingly inaccurate and, instead, the spotlight i on the work being done at academy level for a few…
Chelsea have named Andy Myers and Ed Brand as their Development Squad and Under-18 Head Coaches respectively for the forthcoming season in the latest reshuffle of academy personnel following Frank Lampard’s appointment as First Team Head Coach. Lampard named Joe Edwards among his backroom team last week, reuniting him with fellow academy graduate Jody Morris, creating a vacancy at Under-23 level after two years in charge. Myers, who this summer…
It’s trendy for people, inside academy football or otherwise, to be bullish about the quality of talent in their junior ranks. With every passing season it seems there are five or six new ‘golden generations’ at clubs up and down the country, anointing the ‘next ones’ before the previous gems have even left their teenage years. It’s understandable to an extent; the promise of tomorrow is naturally exciting, the discovery…