Previewing Chelsea’s 2023-24 FA Youth Cup Challenge

December 8, 2023

In each of the last three seasons we’ve previewed Chelsea’s FA Youth Cup campaign with something of a proclamation that it was about time the Blues brought the famous trophy back to Cobham once again. Five straight triumphs between 2014 and 2018 set a certain level of expectation and history – the club is the second-most successful in the competition’s history behind Manchester United – that has not been met…

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Previewing The 2023-24 Chelsea Academy Season

August 9, 2023

The 2022-23 academy campaign at Chelsea was interesting and largely promising, yet there was a sense of business left unfinished, of meat being left on the bone, and of work still to do. Mark Robinson’s Development Squad challenged long and hard for the PL2 title before falling short in the season’s final weeks, while the Under-18s saw a good start fall away to a tough middle before finishing strong under…

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The Chelsea Academy Class of 2023

July 10, 2023

Here we go again, then. It hardly seems like yesterday that we were welcoming the sixteen-strong class of 2022 but, after a year in which those players made significant strides in their first season as full-time footballers, it’s time to welcome another cohort of scholars into the academy. The class of 2023 is a little different to most recent intakes in that the number of graduates coming through the Cobham…

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Chelsea Loan Report: Mid-Season Review

December 29, 2022

The 2022-23 season has been a strange old time at Chelsea Football Club in all departments, with rapid change and general uncertainty underpinning a period of succession planning and building a platform for the future. The loan department, once a huge operation led by Eddie Newton and staffed abundantly, is now somewhat scaled back with Carlo Cudicini in charge, yet the development of some twenty-odd players remains as important now…

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The Chelsea Academy Season Preview 2022-23

August 5, 2022

Last season was interesting for the Chelsea academy to say the least. They produced five first-team debutants in Trevoh Chalobah, Harvey Vale, Lewis Hall, Jude Soonsup-Bell and Xavier Simons, they reached the FA Youth Cup Semi Finals, and they won the Under-18 Premier League Cup. They continued to supply an ever-increasingly impressive number of graduates to the senior game and maintained their position as an industry leader not just within…

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The Chelsea Academy Class Of 2022

July 7, 2022

The Todd Boehly era is well and truly upon us all at Chelsea, including the academy, and as we start a new season there’s an air of both excitement and trepidation that comes with great upheaval. For the time being, at least, expect business as usual down at Cobham, and that means welcoming a new class of first-year scholars inducted into their youth team careers down at the academy this…

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Previewing the 2021-22 FA Youth Cup

December 10, 2021

For a club that sits second in the all-time winners’ table and has lifted the trophy in six of the last ten editions – including five in a row – it seems far too long since Chelsea actually laid their hands on the FA Youth Cup. Reece James captained the 2017-18 vintage to a record-equalling success under Jody Morris but, not only has that success dried up more recently, the…

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State of Play: Reflections on the Chelsea Academy

November 8, 2021

The dust has settled and the calm after the storm is gently guiding Chelsea Football Club from a somewhat controversial summer into the winter. Discontent is rarely far from Stamford Bridge and, though it seems unlikely to return in the next few months, in the wake of the departures of so many talented academy graduates who were far from content with their lot, thoughts inevitably drift towards what the future…

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The Chelsea Academy Season Preview 2021-22

August 12, 2021

Change is frequent in youth football but, even by recent standards, Chelsea have really pushed the boat out this summer. A tumultuous transfer window has seen several talented young players depart Cobham in search of progress and pathways elsewhere, leaving an ever more inexperienced and fledgling group of players following in their footsteps. And who’s to say that those very players won’t have seen what Marc Guehi, Tino Livramento, Lewis…

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The Chelsea Academy Class of 2021

June 29, 2021

Life over the last twelve months has been a world away from ‘normal’ for everyone but, for 15- and 16-year-old academy footballers, things turning upside down at a crucial time in their lives is undoubtedly an unwelcome stress and a challenge the likes of which they will scarcely have faced before. They experienced a two-month absence in their football games programme during a school year where much of their work…

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