After a slow start to the season, Chelsea’s young loanees exploded into action this past week, providing goals, assists and top performances for the first time in 2011-12. Gael Kakuta and Jeffrey Bruma both notched maiden efforts for their new sides whilst Milan Lalkovic, Tomas Kalas and Thibaut Courtois have been in fine form as well. We’ll start with the goalscorers and with Kakuta, who marked his first appearance in…
If it’s entertainment and goals you’re after, following Chelsea’s Under-18 team so far this season will have been well worth your time. The Blues had been involved in five games totalling twenty-six successful efforts at goal prior to today and served up another six this morning as they shared the spoils with Ipswich Town. Defensive frailties have thus far stopped Adie Viveash’s boys from picking up points as despite plenty…
Late September invariably means a new England Under-16 generation is presented to the world for the first time as Kenny Swain and his group gear up for the annual Sky Sports Victory Shield during the closing months of the year. In recent years Chelsea have had an excellent presence in the schoolboy squad and this year is no exception, with four Blues youngsters making the cut for the first squad…
A handful of Chelsea youngsters made debuts for their new clubs this past week but we’re still awaiting notable impacts from many as we take another look at how the loan boys are getting on. Whilst Gael Kakuta sat on Bolton’s substitutes bench for the second week in a row, Patrick van Aanholt made his Wigan bow and slotted straight into a typical attacking left-back role, making an impact at…
Chelsea’s Under-18s battled back from two red cards in the opening fifteen minutes of their match away to Watford on Saturday morning to claim a share of the spoils, with two schoolboys on the scoresheet. Ruben Loftus-Cheek had given Adie Viveash’s boys the lead after a chaotic start to affairs which saw Lewis Baker sent off for violent conduct with a Watford player also receiving his marching orders. Minutes later…
With a month between competitive reserve fixtures and an Under-17 friendly cancelled at the last minute, Chelsea’s academy staff arranged some much-needed playing time for their players this week in the form of a mixed youth and reserve team friendly match at Cobham. Dermot Drummy’s reserve team haven’t played since the last week of August when Blackburn Rovers held them to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, and whilst Adie…
Chelsea’s young Croatian goalkeeper Matej Delač has joined Czech top flight side Dynamo České Budějovice on loan until the end of the season. The club announced the move on their official website this morning. Delač, who spent the duration of last season kicking his heels on the substitutes bench at Vitesse Arnhem, joins a club which has had a terrible start to the season, collecting just one point from six…
With the international break now firmly in the past it’s time to dive back into the club football scene and check up on how Chelsea’s young loanees are getting on at their respective clubs. Transfer deadline day saw two of the club’s more promising talents find Premier League loan moves but neither Gael Kakuta nor Patrick van Aanholt featured in their first opportunities to do so for Bolton Wanderers and…
Chelsea’s young midfielder Billy Clifford yesterday signed a new four-year deal to keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2015. The versatile 18 year-old, who can also play at full-back, put pen to paper on a deal which will extend his career at a club he has been at since the age of eight. Clifford was one of four youngsters who went on the first team tour of Asia and has…
The Chelsea Football Club Academy. Lauded as often as it is criticised and subject to great investment for over half a decade, it attracts much attention and sparks much debate amongst Blues fans, neutrals and pundits alike. At the end of a transfer window which has seen many of the club’s young generation fly the nest to take the next step in their careers, the question of when Chelsea will…