Few English teams are giving quality playing time to young prospects while also succeeding on the pitch. Chelsea’s ambitions and the competitiveness of the Premier League will always complicate the development path for the Blues’ youth.
Antonio Conte stands apart from his predecessors in his willingness to give young players meaningful opportunities across all competitions. However, for as much as Chelsea are pilloried for not playing their youth prospects, they are not much different from the other successful teams in England and in most of Europe. Playing the youth is a nicety but winning remains the necessity.
CIES Football Observatory ranked Europe’s 50 top youth prospects on a combination of their playing time and their team’s success. Unsurprisingly, Chelsea are not represented – not even a loanee. However, only three Premier League clubs appear on the list: Everton, Liverpool and Crystal Palace. Championship sides Fulham and Leeds United round out England’s small contribution to the rankings.
By contrast, Ligue 1 has four players in the top 15 alone, and the Bundesliga has three. Three clubs – AC Milan (Serie A), Toulouse (Ligue 1) and Bayer Leverkeusen (Bundesliga) – have two players among the top 15.
Notably in short-supply among this list are champions. Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Chelsea, Leicester City, PSV and Feyenoord – all league champions in the period covered by the study – do not have a player on the list. AS Monaco and Real Madrid are the only “Big Five + 1” title winners represented.
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Most of the teams with a player in the top 15 of CIES’ study are the perpetual also-rans of their league. Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkeusen are near-certain locks for the Champions League and Europa League every year. But they do not come close to applying even a Spurs level of pressure on Bayern Munich. Young prospects from Dortmund or Leverkeusen often go on to win Bundesliga championships, but only after Bayern Munich poaches them, as they always do.
Monaco, with the exception of last season has a similar relationship with Paris Saint-Germain. Ajax has finished second the last two seasons in the Eredivisie and are currently in… second. The Merseysiders are, well, they’re the Merseysiders. At least one will always be in the top six, but never in the top two.
Chelsea’s reluctance to play young prospects while they are young prospects (CIES used U20’s for the study) is not a quirk of the Roman Abramovich era nor a dependency of managerial turnover. It is part of the imperative to win championships. The dominant clubs of Europe and the dominant clubs of England – Chelsea included – manage their youth the same way.
Even in leagues far less competitive than the Premier League, the hegemons do not give their youth significant playing time. Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain could arguably get away with a more liberal youth policy and still have a significant buffer over second place. Even Barcelona, with their celebrated La Masia and its direct pathway to Camp Nou, chooses experience over youth every time.
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Antonio Conte is integrating Chelsea’s youth into the first team more than any other manager. He is giving them meaningful appearances, such as Callum Hudson-Odoi’s 45 minutes and Kyle Scott’s 30 minutes debut against Hull City. Part of this may be the unhappy freedom of knowing Chelsea are in the Dortmund / Monaco / Ajax role this season: competing for the top four, not the title.
Even if that is the case, though, it shows remarkable foresight, flexibility and commitment to the club’s future. Last season he did not have such an opportunity. Next season, if Chelsea are back in the hunt, he may not either. But by then his youth will have enough experience to come on as necessary into a side challenging for the title.
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Playing the youth and winning titles may be more mutually exclusive than many naively optimistic fans and critics may think. Chelsea fans should be happy for this young silver lining on the 2017/18 Premier League season, and understand why they are on loan or on the bench next year when the Blues chase their third title in five years.