Youth & Reserves

The World Cup is all well and good, but normal service has resumed. Domestic football is back, not only at first team level, but in the Under-18 team. Whilst Carlo Ancelotti’s boys were stretching their legs at Crystal Palace, Dermot Drummy’s youth team opened their pre-season with a closely-fought defeat at the hands of a talented Plymouth Argyle outfit. Drummy chose to operate with a squad of 22 players, who…

Going on loan has become almost a rite of passage for the developing footballer. He makes his way through the youth team ranks, impresses in his late teens, and then looks to bridge the gap to the first team by taking in a temporary spell at a professional team, pitting his wits against fully grown adults. A cursory glance at the England World Cup squad reveals that eleven of them…

A few weeks ago, Chelsea’s latest signing Tomáš Kalas gave an interview to deník.cz in his native country. The 17 year-old defender, capable of playing at centre-back or full-back, impressed during the summer’s European Under-17 Championships and sealed a move to Chelsea in June, with most media outlets breaking the story on Wednesday. As a means of introducing him to his new fans, here’s the interview transcribed. You must be…

Chelsea are continuing to prepare for an uncertain Premier Reserve League campaign in the right way. In an announcement apparently only made (so far) in the club’s official magazine, two further friendly dates have been added to their schedule. The Blues will host Manchester United on August 8th before a fixture against Blackburn Rovers on August 18th. Both fixtures are presumably at Cobham, but that remains to be confirmed. Keen…

Summer time. The winds of change are once again in the air as far as football goes, and whilst teams throughout Europe prepare for their coming season, squads are being shaped at youth and reserve level. Part of that annual process is the induction of a new group of first-year scholars, which Chelsea have officially announced today. It’s a smaller intake than last season’s bumper double-figure tally, but like twelve…

Whilst Monday sees the Chelsea first-team return to Cobham for pre-season, the younger generation are already back in Surrey after their summer breaks. For eight teenagers, the hard work starts now as they signed their maiden professional contracts. James Ashton, Billy Clifford, Aziz Deen-Conteh, Rohan Ince, Milan Lalkovic, Josh McEachran, Philipp Prosenik and George Saville put pen to paper yesterday afternoon to secure themselves senior deals, and whilst it’s a…

A number of Chelsea’s reserve team were expected to find pastures new this summer, and on the first day of the summer transfer window, Nana Ofori-Twumasi has led the way in being the first to find a new club. The Ghanaian-born England Under-20 international has signed a three-year deal with Peterborough United, who were relegated to League One in 2009/10. It’s an interesting move for the versatile defender, who has…

For a number of years, there have been more than a few murmurings of discontent with the Premier League’s reserve structure, with the highest profile managers in the country speaking out against it. After a number of teams withdrew from participation in the league over the last twelve months, the Premier League has acted upon change, with effect from the 2010/11 season. The previous North/South split, of a simple home…

Dario Gradi announced Monday that Crewe Alexandra were taking a Chelsea reserve team goalkeeper on loan over the summer with the view to an extended loan move. That player turned out to be Welsh Under-21 stopper Rhys Taylor, and as he prepares to join the Railwaymen for pre-season, he kicks off what is sure to be another busy campaign of temporary moves. Last season saw nineteen different players involved in…