Youth & Reserves

A much-changed and much younger Chelsea Reserve team won a hard-fought local derby against West London rivals Fulham on Monday afternoon as goals from Romelu Lukaku, Ismail Seremba and Patrick Bamford secured a 3-2 victory. Fulham twice responded from behind with strikes courtesy of first-teamers Kerim Frei and Pajtim Kasami but were undone late in the game by Bamford, who won a disputed penalty kick which he converted to mark…

One of Chelsea’s youngest Under-18 line-ups of the season went down 3-1 on Saturday morning to a Southampton team who got their business done early. A pair of talented England Under-17 internationals did the damage as the Saints were three goals to the good inside eight minutes. First, a free kick from the right was beautifully delivered by Luke Shaw and headed home at the far post before Shaw himself…

For the second round in a row Chelsea kept their FA Youth Cup hopes alive courtesy of a penalty shootout after a dramatic 120 minutes against West Ham United. Lewis Baker’s opening goal highlighted a sterling first half performance by the Blues but they were pegged back shortly before the break. Islam Feruz restored the lead but Blair Turgott drew the Hammers level again before Elliott Lee’s stoppage time strike…

Chelsea’s reserve team took part in a wild encounter this afternoon against a Gillingham team comprising fringe first-team players and reserves, and ended up on the right side of a nine-goal spectacular scoreline. Early goals by Jacob Mellis and George Saville had the Blues comfortably ahead at the break, but Callum Davies replied for the visitors at the start of what was to prove an unbelieable second half. Schoolboy substitute…

Andreas Christensen, a 16 year-old Danish defender currently playing for Brondby, will join Chelsea on a four-year deal at the end of the season, according to reports in Denmark this morning. Christensen has previously been linked with a move to the Blues, but also received interest from a host of other top European clubs, with Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool all said to have been keen on the centre-back. However,…

op·por·tu·ni·ty Noun: A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something. When discussing youth and reserve team football and player development, everything comes back to this single word. Opportunity. It might arise through merit, or it may be through fate, but without it, a player cannot prove himself worthy. Opportunity is, at times unfortunately, at the behest of circumstance. Rarely in the upper echelons of the game is…

Chelsea’s young Slovakian winger Milan Lalkovic is set to join Dutch Eredivisie outfit ADO Den Haag on loan until the end of the season, according to breaking reports. The Under-21 international revealed on his personal Twitter account earlier in the afternoon that he would be heading out on loan and reports in the Netherlands this evening, most notably from reputable outlet Voetbal International, state that his destination is The Hague….