Chelsea’s youth academy falling short of rivals and potential after 10 years
Chelsea FC opened their Cobham Training Centre ten years ago. But rather than receiving plaudits for their successful graduates, the Blues rank only ninth in producing Premier League players.
One of Roman Abramovich’s first priorities when he bought the club was bringing Chelsea‘s training facilities into the 21st century. That process involved moving all levels of team training – from schoolboys to the first team – into one combined complex.
Abramovich recognised the need to invest in the now-infamous “Chelsea kids.” Cobham is now synonymous with Chelsea’s youth development programme.
As a training facility, Cobham has been a tremendous success across all levels. The club’s trophy cabinet proves that. As a place to develop home-grown players, the success rate is negligible. This flies against Chelsea’s former chief executive Peter Kenyon’s mission statement for the training centre.
"Developing home-grown players is a vitally important goal for Chelsea. Our young players, academy and community coaches will be working closely with the first team – this is very much part of our club philosophy. – BBC"
What the Cobham complex has become could not be further from that original concept. You could take each sentence, turn it to the negative and it would be more appropriate.
Two recent transfers away from Stamford Bridge highlight the system’s failures. Nathan Ake joined the academy as a U18 in 2011. The Dutch centre-back spent a year with the U18’s before being promoted to the first team, where he had very little impact for three years.
The following two seasons saw him yoyo between loan clubs. The Dutchman spent the first half of last season on loan at Bournemouth and proved he could cope with the demands of the Premier League. Chelsea recalled him in January, then tasked him with keeping the bench warm on matchdays. His Chelsea career culminated in this summer’s departure to Bournemouth for £20 million at the age of 22.
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The fact he was so underused proves the academy is not fit for purpose. Yes, Ake turned a nice profit for the club, and indeed, with a new stadium in the offing, cash is king.
However, Chelsea then go and buy German centre back Antonio Rudiger, just two years older and £10 million more expensive. Surely, it would have much better to have eased Ake into the first team set-up, and saved Rudiger’s transfer fee.
Likewise, Dominic Solanke joined Chelsea at age seven. Chelsea trained, nurtured, paid and ultimately developed him into a footballer for 12 years. This summer, he felt he had no chance of first-team football as a Blue. He declined a new contract with Chelsea to join Premier League rivals Liverpool for a to-be-determined compensation fee.
Solanke felt he had no choice but to leave his parent club after such a long time. Despite Chelsea’s investment in time and money and Solanke’s investment of his youth years, the outcome proves, once again, the academy is not fit for purpose.
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The academy’s Head of Youth Development, Neil Bath, recently said “Realistically, to break into a first team like ours you have to have played between 150 and 200 games at senior level.” Based on that statement, anyone coming through Chelsea’s academy system would have to spend up to four full seasons on loan and playing regularly in order to have a chance at breaking into the first team.
Bath’s statement also helps explain how Chelsea’s academy ranks only ninth among youth programmes for sending players to the Premier League. The Daily Mail reports that Chelsea academy graduates played 13,445 Premier League minutes last season.
That is less than one-third the minutes from Manchester United academy products. Chelsea lagged even Sheffield United and Arsenal, and barely edged Feyenoord and Ajax.
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In simple terms, Chelsea’s Cobham Training Complex is a fabulous facility to work and train in. But as a vehicle for producing footballers that go on to have successful careers with London’s top team, it is a failure, one that is not living up to its promise or purpose.