Chelsea FC Technical Director Michael Emenalo sat down with the club’s TV station to give an in-depth and fascinating interview
The discussion covered Michael Emenalo’s role at Chelsea FC, streamlining the scouting network, forward planning in preparation for Financial Flay Play regulations, focusing on young English talent, the positive relationship with the FA, countering criticism of the club’s academy production…
Ahem.
…why the Juan Cuadrado signing was bad timing and how the club made a mistake with the development of Josh McEachran.
In what was a thought-provoking interview, the former Nigerian international footballer gave viewers a rare insight into the strategy behind the huge development process taking place every day at Chelsea Football Club.
Emenalo joined Chelsea in 2007 as Head Opposition Scout, but after the shock departure of the popular Ray Wilkins, Emenalo was promoted to assistant first team coach on the 18th November 2010. Less than 8 months later, Emenalo had been promoted again, this time to the position of Technical Director, the role that he has held for the past 4 years.
Before touching on the more topical subjects, the Nigerian outlined his role at Stamford Bridge.
Next: The Role
The Role
The academy, recruitment and scouting departments that sit under Emenalo’s leadership are shaping the future of one of the biggest football clubs in the world and from the start of the interview he is quick to acknowledge the demands and expectations associated with his role of Technical Director.
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Emenalo’s relationships with Jose Mourinho and the academy management team are vital to the success of his role and he admits as much by saying that it is his responsibility to ensure that everything runs “smoothly” between the departments.
It appears as though that one of the biggest undertakings Emenalo has overseen during his 4 year tenure is an overhaul of the recruitment process. In a move that is steeped in common sense and logic, he has looked to make the club’s scout network, headed up by Scott McLachlan, more efficient and professional. The once vast network has been “thinned” so that there is “less bodies” and there is now more of an emphasis on the scouts being “discreet, whilst not showing their hands or pursuing a player without being overtly crass”.
This may amuse some people given how public Chelsea’s pursuit of John Stones was this summer. The Blues openly stated that they wanted to buy the player, a move that it could easily be described as “overtly crass”. Roberto Martinez even went so far as to accuse the club of tapping up.
Having said that, the club did land Pedro, Abdul Baba Rahman and Michael Hector without much preceeding fanfare so maybe he has a point.
Next: Financial Fair Play
Financial Fair Play
Financial Fair Play (FFP) was approved in 2010 and the first assessments began in 2011. Since 2013 UEFA have assessed clubs to ensure that they are balancing their outgoings with their incomings in a bid to ensure that they don’t accumulate debt.
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Emenalo was keen to point out that Chelsea “anticipated that the regulations would be enforced strictly” and as such the club set about planning for the restrictions that would be imposed.
Chelsea’s strategic approach to signings shifted from buying players that were older, more experienced individuals seen in previous seasons, to younger, hungrier players.
The players cited as examples of the club’s new strategy were Juan Mata, signed at the age of 23 in 2011, Oscar (19 in 2012) and Eden Hazard (21 also in 2012).
Whilst Chelsea have put plans in place and made huge strides in adhering to the regulations set out by FFP, it is clear that Emenalo isn’t convinced that the rules are still strictly enforced. With a wry smile on his face Chelsea’s Technical Director made mention of the relatively subdued punishments metered out to those deemed to have breached the rules, calling UEFA’s action just a “slap on the wrist”.
With record-breaking spending in the summer’s transfer window, it is clear that UEFA have loosened their previously strict stance, but it remains to be seen how Chelsea will react to this. Given the relatively quiet summer for the club, it may well be that Chelsea want to see how the land lies and will watch with interest how UEFA respond to the high spending levels.
Next: Young English Talent And The FA
Young English Talent And The FA
In a stance that will make many Chelsea fans happy, Emenalo stressed how vital it is that Chelsea continues to grow and develop a core of young English talent. Stating the obvious to emphasise his point he reminds us that “Chelsea is an English club” and the club has a “mandate to produce as much English talent as possible”.
As most football observers, pundits and fans of Chelsea and opposition clubs are quick to highlight, John Terry is the outstanding elephant in the room, being the last successful English player to graduate from our academy to the first team. Bearing this in mind, it is fantastic to hear that there is a formal objective in place to achieve this ambitious goal.
With players such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Dominic Solanke and Isaiah Brown all having had a taste of first team football for the Blues and adding in the star potential of players like Patrick Bamford and Lewis Baker, the possibility of a greater representation of English talent in the first team is not too far off.
There can be no doubt that due to both Chelsea’s commitment to developing the best English talent and the names listed above, the club have a “wonderful relationship with the FA”. Emenalo also highlighted that Chelsea “supply the most number of players” across all levels of the England youth international sides.
While Chelsea do indeed provide the most amount of players to the FA, Emenalo was quick to point out that we are “not just sending bodies” to make up the numbers, but that we are providing “well educated talented individuals”. It is clear that the Nigerian takes great pride in the fact and long may it continue.
Next: The Academy And Loan Army
The Academy And Loan Army
Another strategic approach that the club take is to make Chelsea’s youngsters play 2 levels above their age group. The Under 18 squad is made up of largely 15- and 16-year-olds, whilst the under 21 squad is flooded with 17- and 18- year-olds. Additionally, Emenalo pointed out that it is rare for the club to have any 19-year-olds in the academy.
Discussing 4 players specifically, Emenalo uses Dominic Solanke, aged just 17, Izzy Brown (18), Lewis Baker (20) and young French star Jeremie Boga (18) as examples of players that have reached the point at which their development is better served playing in first teams around Europe.
It is a ploy that Emenalo states the FA is pleased about saying that they are “happy for players to go abroad, as it is valuable experience that they couldn’t get in the Championship or in the Premier League”.
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When discussing Chelsea’s loan programme, Emenalo “predicts confidently that others will follow suit”.
The loan strategy first started to come to prominence for Chelsea “because of the quality of training they are receiving in our academy, people started asking us for our players.”
One of the core reasons for such an extensive approach to the loaning of young players stems from the “gap between the academy players aged 18- and 19-year-old and the first team”. As Emenalo points out we are “not talking about any other first team, this is Chelsea Football club.” The club “can’t expect 18- and 19 year-olds to be ready” to come into the first team and “win games, titles, games that mean something, [with] no room for error.” As Emenalo so eloquently puts it, these are “huge demands” for those so young.
With perhaps a nod to a couple of our European rivals, our Technical Director points out that Chelsea have to take this approach to ensure that players develop as we do not have “the benefit of ‘B’ teams”. Furthermore, we could not simply have them playing for the under 21 team as the “under 21 league doesn’t offer players the opportunity to play in important games”.
The welfare of the players out on loan is clearly of high importance for Emenalo, referencing the important work that the aptly named ‘Temporary Loan Department’ do with the young stars living and working abroad.
The department headed up by former Chelsea midfielder Eddie Newton and ably supported by ex-right back Paulo Ferreira are tasked with “ensuring that the players don’t feel like outcasts”.
Despite being in different countries the club will obviously still need to keep track of their development and the club “want to give them the impression that we are with them and monitor everything they do”.
Working with Newton and Ferreira are teams of sports psychologists, physiotherapists and medical teams whose objective is to make sure that the loanees “had their own pre-season, so that they are ready” to start playing first team football straight away.
Emenalo used Oriol Romeu as evidence of the department’s hard work paying off, where the young Spaniard has joined Southampton permanently and has played 3 games straight away, despite not previously being a first team regular.
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However, the loan strategy wasn’t always as considered as it is today. Where Chelsea would “initially go with the first club” to show an interest in taking a player, “now we can take our time, as the players are so good.” When a request comes in for one of our youth products, Emenalo now sits down with Jose Mourinho and Head or Youth Development Neil Bath, to “map out, plan ahead and see what clubs are good for the players.”
Emenalo is keen to stress that the whole exercise of loaning out players is not one entirely used for making money: “we send our players so they can develop and be better players and hopefully come back and go into the first team”.
It is an obvious observation to state that clearly not all of Chelsea’s loan army are going to return to the club and get their chance to play, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the academy has failed to deliver.
Emenalo is very aware of the criticism levelled at Chelsea for not producing enough first team players, but the Nigerian counters this argument with listing a selection of names who are “staples in the Premier League and for international teams”.
The players named were Miroslav Stoch (a Slovakian international), Turkey international forward Gokhan Tore, Jack Cork and Ryan Bertrand (both Southampton), Liam Bridcutt and Patrick Van Aanholt (Sunderland), and Jeffrey Bruma who will be playing in this season’s Champions League for PSV Eindhoven.
As far as Emenalo is concerned, the academy has produced some very good footballers, but as yet there aren’t many that have been good enough to wear the Chelsea shirt. Hopefully Loftus-Cheek will be the first to break that mould.
Next: Case Studies
Case Studies
Emenalo is part of a senior management team at Chelsea who is tasked with ensuring that the club “balances being successful, winning trophies and comfortably qualifying for the Champions League”. Smiling while considering the latter point, he caveats it with “which is now considered a trophy”, in what was perhaps a little nod to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.
The balance he describes is assisted by two main points. They are “having the right players at the right time” and “knowing when a player’s development has not finished”.
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Emenalo uses two players to back up his reasoning.
The first of which is Victor Moses, a player he describes as “very talented” and a player that the club “wants to keep”, a sentiment reflected by the fact that Emenalo’s countryman has just signed a new contract at the club.
The second player discussed is Juan Cuadrado. The player was signed in the 2014/15 winter transfer window, joining the club in the aftermath of a “difficult game against Spurs”.
Unfortunately, as a result of the Spurs result Chelsea “had to change our strategy for the rest of the season, which didn’t suit the reason we had bought him for”.
Cuadrado consequently saw very limited game time and his form dipped to such an extent that the club “felt it was better for him to go and rediscover his confidence”. The club of choice was last season’s Champions League finalist Juventus.
Emenalo points to Juventus and West Ham in Moses’ case as 2 top clubs that we are sending players too and that it “proves that we don’t recruit bad players”. The performances of Egyptian Mohammed Salah for Fiorentina last season was also used as a case in point.
When discussing the future, Emenalo references the past. He wants to “continuously improve, perfect and streamline the loan clubs” we send our players too.
Unfortunately for one such player, this wasn’t always the case.
Young English midfielder Josh McEachran was a name on many a Chelsea fan’s lips a few years back and big things were expected. Sadly for McEachran, he didn’t fulfill his potential.
Emenalo describes McEachran as a “wonderful talent”, but he feels that the lack of direction within the club’s loan strategy at the time meant that the player didn’t end up at the right clubs to ensure that his development continued. Emenalo feels that “we could have had a different programme” for McEachran, but that “we had learnt from that”.
To wrap up his interview, the Nigerian was clear in what is required moving forward. Chelsea must “make sure we are very specific where they go”. This highlights the need for himself and Jose Mourinho to coordinate and work closely with each other in order that the “chances for success are much greater”.
And that is something that all Chelsea fans will be delighted to hear.
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