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In re-watching some of last season’s reserve team fixtures, one thing became abundantly clear. Throughout the season, on a consistent basis, Billy Clifford was the best player in a Chelsea shirt (although Jacob Mellis ran him close for a long time). Statistically, of course, he was the leading appearance maker and chief creator with a team-high seven assists, but above and beyond pure numbers, the footage spoke loud and clear….

Saturday saw pre-season get underway at Chelsea with action for both their Under-21 and Under-18 teams, and there was plenty to talk about across the board. A total of 43 players featured across the two teams, with some known new faces joined by some unknown ones, and an emphatic victory for the younger generation to kick things off. Adi Viveash’s Under-18s hosted Torquay United at Cobham and ran out 12-1…

Chelsea’s teenage Brazilian forward Lucas Piazon will spend pre-season with Roberto Di Matteo’s first team squad in the United States. The squad flies out to the West Coast tomorrow and amongst the travelling party will be 18 year-old Piazon, who impressed during much of last season and twice featured as an unused substitute. He is yet to debut for the first team but in a message sent by his public…

Vitesse Arnhem, one of Chelsea’s Dutch affiliates, confirmed this afternoon that defender Patrick van Aanholt will return to the Gelredome on loan for the duration of the 2012-13 campaign. The Under-21 international spent the second half of last season at the club and received the regular playing time he sought, having struggled to work his way into Wigan Athletic’s team in the first half of the year. With Ashley Cole…

Chelsea’s young Uruguayan forward Jhon Pirez is set to spend pre-season with Spanish Second Division outfit CE Sabadell. The 19 year-old forward, who joined the Blues back in 2008, has spent the last few months back at home in Uruguay first playing for the national Under-20 team before joining up with former club Defensor Sporting for the second time since departing. In his first return spell, he grabbed a maiden…

Six of Chelsea’s FA Youth Cup winning team have this week put pen to paper on their first professional contracts. John Swift, Lewis Baker and Nathan Aké have signed up until 2015 on three-year deals, whilst Anjur Osmanovic, Alex Davey and Adam Nditi have been offered two years. The group have been rewarded for productive first seasons as scholars and for their excellent development as footballers. Aké and Osmanovic will…

It’s that time of year when we look to the future and introduce Chelsea’s class of 2012-13; the schoolboys who have earned academy scholarship deals. As we enter a new era in youth development within the English game, the Blues do so with their biggest first-year intake perhaps ever. With a revised games programme and the addition of the Under-19 NextGen series, there promises to be plenty of football on…

Chelsea today revealed that as of the coming season, they have renewed relations with Brentford and will once again play their reserve fixtures at Griffin Park. The reserves – or Under-21s, to give them their new official name – played at Brentford’s stadium from 2007-2010 before concerns regarding the quality of the playing surface saw them move the vast majority of matches to their Cobham training centre. However, under the…