Youth & Reserves

With real football on pause, we’re afforded an opportunity to reflect on the past, more so than usual. Let’s look back at one of my favourite all-time academy matches; the 2014 FA Youth Cup Final Second Leg between Chelsea and Fulham. The Background Six years ago, the academy wasn’t quite the trophy-laden winning machine it became throughout the rest of the decade, but it was firmly on that trajectory. A…

Exactly one year before Armando Broja made his Chelsea first-team debut against Everton, he was a second-half substitute for a toiling Under-18 team heading for a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal, who were about to end the academy’s four-year reign as South section champions. Far from showing glimpses of the potential that would see him become one of the club’s twenty-five youngest debutants, he was so far off the radar that…

When Armando Broja entered the field of play at Stamford Bridge towards the end of Chelsea’s handsome 4-0 win over Everton a fortnight ago, he became the eighth academy debutant of Frank Lampard’s maiden season in charge. The Albania Under-21 international followed in the footsteps of Mason Mount, Reece James, Billy Gilmour, Tino Anjorin, Ian Maatsen, Marc Guehi and Tariq Lamptey in what has been a record-breaking campaign for academy…

Clinton Mola and Tariq Lamptey are gone. Charlie Brown, George McEachran and Marc Guehi have departed on loan. Levi Colwill may be done for the season injured. Faustino Anjorin, Billy Gilmour and Armando Broja are with the first team and Marcel Lavinier is trialling elsewhere. Chelsea’s Development Squad continues to be decimated by most fair standards but, as they beat Everton 1-0 courtesy of a late Luke McCormick penalty, they…

Chelsea are back in the FA Youth Cup Semi Finals after a comfortable 1-0 win over Millwall at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening. A second-half strike by Armando Broja, his 20th of the season, was enough to steer the Blues to within one match of another Final, and it was ultimately a more comfortable win than the scoreline really reflected. Enjoying the lion’s share of possession and creating by many…

Chelsea returned to Under-18 Premier League action for the first time in three weeks with a resounding 4-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in a match that also saw new 17 year-old Norwegian forward Bryan Fiabema make his debut for the club. Myles Peart-Harris scored twice, once in either half, while Marcel Lewis and Dion Rankine also got in on the act in a performance that saw the Blues…