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 Youth Cup Winners Sign Pro Terms
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…
Chelsea Announce New Scholar Intake
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…
Back To Business: The Week at Chelsea
The arrival of July and of pre-season has inevitably resulted in a hive of activity at Chelsea this past week. As it’s Friday, it’s time to take a look back at a hectic five days both at Cobham and further afield for Chelsea at all levels, particularly on the youth front. The headline act, of course, has been the return to training of the first team squad, minus those who…
Reserves Return to Brentford
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…
Kilimanjaro in Balham
It must be about a month ago that I had a notification on Facebook (or “The Face” as Old Mother Baby refers to it); “Ross Mooring has invited you to an event”. The event in question was marked “KTBFFH pre-climb drinks” in Balham, and not having any previous engagement for the evening concerned, I accepted. The event in question was a send-off for two fine, brave, Chelsea fans, Clive Osgood…
Injury-Hit Youngsters Look To Make Up For Lost Time
Injuries are part and parcel of the game. They happen, although the causes and reasons for them are heavily debated. However, what is undeniable is that when a budding young footballer is sidelined for a considerable period of time during his development, his career prospects take a big hit. The medical staff at the Cobham academy have been kept busy in recent years with an unfortunately high number of players…
The Chelsea Coaching Fraternity
On August 4th, Roberto Di Matteo and Gus Poyet will line up in opposing dugouts for a pre-season friendly between Brighton and Chelsea. The match will precede a Premier League campaign that will feature Steve Clarke as manager of West Bromwich Albion and Mark Hughes at QPR, as well as former Blues coach Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. The number of former Chelsea players – particularly from teams around the turn…
Former Blues Watch: Volume Two
In March’s Volume One of this irregular series, Fabio Borini headlined a wealth of former Blues making waves elsewhere in the 2011-12 season. Volume Two starts with the young Italian as we take a look at the state of play with the summer transfer market in mind. Borini had been the subject of a speculated move to Liverpool to once again link up with Brendan Rodgers, but the likelihood of…
Contract Years
The final year of a player’s contract is always an uncertain time. If they’ve not been extended before the beginning of the final year of their terms, it’s usually an indication that they may well be on their way come the end of the campaign. That was the case with Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and Jose Bosingwa at the end of the 2011-12 season and as we embark upon another…