Chelsea’s most notable departures this summer were their longest-serving player and three Academy graduates who could have followed in his footsteps. Will the Blues pay a price for selling Nathan Ake, Nathaniel Chalobah, Dominic Solanke and others like them?
A starting XI of players Chelsea have sold over the last few seasons would be in the top half of most leagues. Several ex-Blues are now their new club’s record signings. Some had another stop along the way, like Romelu Lukaku and Kevin de Bruyne. Nathan Ake, on the other hand, went straight from Stamford Bridge to Bournemouth’s record book.
The Blues sold other youth prospects for barely a song. Watford picked up Nathaniel Chalobah for only £5 million, an amount mitigated by a buy-back clause. Earlier, Dominic Solanke transferred to Liverpool. The Reds will likely pay Chelsea about £3 million for the striker who scored seven goals on loan at Vitesse and 65 goals in 83 youth appearances for club and country.
Add in Mohamed Salah, and four of Chelsea’s most exciting former prospects are at three of Chelsea’s top-six rivals. While the Blues only made one of those sales, they will still have to stare down and neutralize top-flight players that were once their own. And while neither Bournemouth nor Watford will directly challenge Chelsea for the title, they can impact Chelsea’s ambitions by taking points off of Chelsea when they meet.
"You don’t know their potential and their calibre until they play enough. You don’t know if they are all title-chasing calibre, and that’s OK if they are not. But they need to learn, they need to practice and Chelsea may end up shooting themselves in the foot over this. – Rayna Sidhu, The Blue Lions"
Chelsea’s habit of selling off young players – whether academy graduates or young transfers with a quick turnaround, like Mohamed Salah – also impacts the club’s transfer needs. Selling Romelu Lukaku in 2014 and dismissing Dominic Solanke led directly to the scramble for a striker this summer.
"I think Solanke is going to be a key part of Liverpool’s season. If he had played a bit more for the Blues over the last two seasons, he and Michy Batshuayi could have been Chelsea’s strikers without the mad scramble to get Alvaro Morata, who is a great signing to be fair. – Ajitesh Rasgotra"
Chelsea’s handling of young players cuts across the many managers of the last decade. Like many top clubs working to sustain success, Chelsea are more keen to buy a proven player than take a risk on a young prospect.
However, even Manchester United under Jose Mourinho – the Premier League club and the manager most notorious for simply buying a star squad – are showing a better commitment to their youth than Chelsea.
Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial are taking on increasingly prominent roles in United’s squad. Lingard is a United academy graduate, and Martial arrived on a transfer as a teenager. United also succeeded in bringing back Paul Pogba to where he started his footballing life, if you can consider paying £87 million a success.
The 2018 World Cup looms over the decisions of some young players to leave this season. Players like Nathaniel Chalobah and Kurt Zouma need consistent playing time in order to make their national team. But for Chalobah, in particular, he simply needed to play and take the steps necessary to realize his potential as a footballer.
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Before long, Chelsea will face either a former player or a loanee every weekend. While players in the latter category can not take the pitch against the Blues, those in the former will be keen to square off against the team that sent them away. Chelsea should hope that those players are not looking to send a message about what their ex-club could have had.