Chelsea leads at Toulon Tournament once again but futures remain unclear
By Travis Tyler
For the third year in a row, England have won the Toulon Tournament with plenty of Chelsea players on display. But success has been hard to translate.
England have dominated the Toulon Tournament for the last three years. And each time, players from Chelsea’s academy have played a significant role in England’s victory. Even outside of the English team, Chelsea has seen academy players contribute significantly.
Since England began their run, 14 different Chelsea players have lifted the trophy with the side. Another four have represented other nations. The Blues have had the tournaments top scorer in 2016, the Younger Player of the Tournament in 2017, and the Breakthrough Player of the Tournament in 2018.
But few of these players have seen their success in Toulon translate to the club. Success at youth level does not guarantee success at the professional level, but there is a correlation. The Blues have struggled so far to be on the right side of that statistic.
Combined, the five players from 2016 have a grand total of 1706 minutes for Chelsea. The majority of that belongs to Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the rest is mostly Nathaniel Chalobah. John Swift has left for Reading and Nathaniel Chalobah left for Watford. The remaining two, Kasey Palmer and Lewis Baker, are stuck around Championship level with loans that have not worked out. Only Ruben Loftus-Cheek appears to have a chance of breaking through at the Blues anytime soon.
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2017 saw a much younger contingent of seven players. The group only has one player with professional minutes (Ike Ugbo), all of which were on loan this previous season. Two of the players, Cole Dasilva and Ruben Sammut, have recently been released by Chelsea. The others remain in the academy.
2018 had a young group of Chelsea players but one that was far more experienced professionally. Fikayo Tomori, Tammy Abraham, Jake Clarke-Salter, and Jay Dasilva have all played on loan leading into the tournament. Billy Gilmour was the only one that had only seen academy minutes.
So the Chelsea players at the tournament have gone from older to younger and less experienced to more. That could see more breakthrough at the Blues, but only Loftus-Cheek is close from the original group. The most recent group shows a great deal of promise because of their experience and age, but something must be done to create a pathway for the youngsters.
Youth competition means little in the grand scheme of things, but it is an important learning experience to be involved in. That experience can help to start a professional career, but it rarely translates directly into one. The players have done their part, but Chelsea need to do the rest.
The loans the most recent group have already have hint at an understanding on Chelsea’s part that was not there before the previous two tournaments. The more playing time against professionals the youth can get, the higher their chances are of breaking through at Chelsea.
Chelsea have the players. They just need to create the framework that allows them to succeed.
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All stats are from TransferMarkt.com.