Chelsea’s Youth Project - What is the plan and will it work?

What are Chelsea’s plans for all of this young talent we’ve acquired?

Since Todd Boehly’s consortium took over in May 2022, an abundance of young talent has come through the door at Stamford Bridge, and it hasn’t been cheap. This has led many people, whether they be Chelsea fans, pundits, or general football fans to wonder what exactly is the plan with all of this elite young talent and will the plan work? 

The names that Chelsea have signed so far are Carney Chukwuemeka, Gabriel Slonina, Cesare Casadei, Omari Hutchinson, Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana, Kendry Paez, Diego Moreira, Angelo Gabriel, Dujuan Richards, Jimmy-Jay Morgan, Ishe Samuels-Smith and more that have joined up with the development squad. We will also see more ‘project’ signings made this summer with reports coming out last night from MailSport that Chelsea have joined the race for 6-foot 3 inch Japanese striker Keisuke Goto who Chelsea scouts believe is the best talent in Japan. If signed he likely won’t be the last in through the door. 

Also, at the time of writing this, Fabrizio Romano has just posted some exclusive news that Chelsea are set to add Newcastle midfielder Ollie Harrison to our academy. Harrison will turn 16 in May. The mass acquisition of young talent shows no sign of stopping!

So, what will Chelsea do with all of these talented players? Because there is no doubt that some won’t even see first-team action at the club. 

The first thing we need to remember is we are owned by businessmen who are naturally profit-seekers, so the cynics may argue that all of these players have been purchased to end up making money for the club. Whilst I believe this is partly true (for example if David Datro Fofana has a blinding spell on loan at Union Berlin and they offer us a good chunk more than the 10 million euros we paid, that’s the kind of sale the owners would consider), these players were brought into the club to help win us silverware in the future. 

Naturally, they won’t all make it at Chelsea so that, paired with the potential profitability of buying them opportunistically and below their market value, there will be lots of opportunities to make a profit from these players in the future which will no doubt satisfy the businesspeople at the club. 

Andrey Santos is the best example of that. Chelsea secured his services for just shy of 13 million euros and before even stepping foot in England, the club believes his market value has more than doubled off the back of the Under-20 World Cup and the South American Under-20 Championship where he won the golden boot from midfield. He’s also played for the Brazil senior team already. This has led to Barcelona contacting his representatives already according to reliable reports in Brazil. Even though Andrey is one of the players I’m convinced will make it here, this does all highlight the fact that there are great money-making opportunities here when buying young players below their market value. 

Setting aside the potential for profit, the main reason the club are investing millions of pounds into young talent is that we see huge potential in these players and genuinely believe that a good portion of them will become world-beaters in the future. The new and refined loan system devised by the club means that the loans picked out for players have their development and best interests at heart, rather than the old loan strategy that saw multiple players stuck in the system year in and year out. 

Nowadays, if a player comes back from loan there should be excitement that they can come in, perform for us and have a chance in pre-season, rather than the dreaded days where the likes of Tiemoue Bakayoko and Baba Rahman would come back and take up space. These loans will give these players that aren’t quite at our level (yet) the best chance possible to be at the level to play for Chelsea. 

Another area that will help these talents thrive and eventually become big first-team players at Chelsea is the establishment of the multi-club model. BlueCo purchased close to 100 percent of Strasbourg in France and are looking to purchase a club in Portugal with the reports suggesting that Rio Ave is the most likely. These clubs can now be utilised by Chelsea to help develop players and make them ready for our first team. Strasbourg is obviously in Ligue 1 which is a competitive league and is a fantastic league to nurture young talent. Angelo Gabriel, who Chelsea just signed from Santos, is currently the most likely Chelsea player to join Strasbourg, who are managed by Patrick Vieira. 

I will add, whilst the acquisition of all this young talent is great, every single player needs to have a plan for them for the current stage of their career. Whether that be a first-teamer, a development squad player, or a loanee. The players cannot float around the club. The players that float and don’t really have a purpose tend to end up taking the spaces of youth players which is not fair. This youth project cannot interfere with the work of the academy and development squad. It should enhance it and they should go hand in hand. Players without a good plan made by the club could find themselves floating and that can undo a lot of good work. 

The question presented at the beginning of the article was ‘Will the youth project work?’ and that remains to be seen. However, there is huge potential for two things to happen. Profit and playing time. Both of which are great things. In an ideal world, the club have the opportunity to cash in and make money on some of these players if Chelsea just haven’t got a need for them, there is a lot of money to be made here. More importantly, some of those players listed earlier could potentially become legends of the club. The fact is these owners know what they’re doing and I for one am extremely excited to see the continuation and growth of this project for years to come.

Will Reyner