Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are two of the standout players from Chelsea’s highly successful youth system and both just debuted for England.
For the last few years, Chelsea’s youth team attacks were spearheaded by two highly talented individuals: Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham. They were at their very best during the 2014-15 season when they scored 41 goals each. Chelsea went on to win both the FA Youth Cup and UEFA Youth League that season.
After a year on loan at Vitese’s first team in the Dutch League, Solanke was unwilling to extend his contract with Chelsea. This prevented Chelsea from sending him on loan to gain more experience as it is the club’s policy to secure a new contract before doing so.
Without securing a long-term commitment, the club was not ready to offer him a first team place either. Consequently, a whole year was wasted as Solanke made just 6 appearances for the Chelsea U21 team. At the end of his contract, Solanke opted to sign for Liverpool in search of first team football.
On the other hand, Abraham was able to make full use of his first year out on loan when he featured for Bristol City. It was personally a hugely successful season for Abraham where he won both the young player of the season and player of the season in addition to winning Championship player of the month once. He was the Championship club’s top scorer as well.
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Abraham was rewarded with a new contract – which he was ready to sign unlike Solanke. Soon he headed to Swansea on loan to gain Premier League experience. He is currently their first choice striker. As a result he was rewarded with senior call up after impressing in the England youth ranks as well.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, is arguably the standout player in the Crystal Palace side who are languishing at the bottom of the table. After a highly successful youth career, he was part of Chelsea’s first team last year. Despite Palace’s awful form, Loftus-Cheek’s performances earned him his senior debut.
Despite getting less than 100 minutes under his belt for Liverpool’s first team, Solanke has also been called up for the friendly against Brazil. Unlike Abraham, who has racked up almost 900 minutes of first team action, Solanke’s call-up is mainly for his exploits with U20 team.
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Young players need game time to develop themselves and gain experience. Players just need to grab any opportunity with both hands when Chelsea send them on loan. Others who think they are ready to feature for a major club’s first team could end up rotting away on the sidelines. Both Tammy Abraham and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have shown that trusting in Chelsea’s loan system can pay dividends on an international scale.