Chelsea need a technical director to play defence against Michael Emenalo
By George Perry
Chelsea U18 Jonathan Panzo defender is set to transfer to AS Monaco. He is not the first youth to exit the academy prematurely this summer, and he will not be the last to receive a phone call from Michael Emenalo.
Chelsea have been linked with a number of centre-backs and full-backs this summer. They do not need any more defenders on the pitch, but they increasingly need someone to play defence in the front office. Eight months after leaving Stamford Bridge, Michael Emenalo is about to complete his first pursuit of a Chelsea academy player. Unless the Blues hire someone who can push back on these offers, little will stand in the way of Emenalo poaching from the development system he built and knows so well.
Emenalo led AS Monaco’s pursuit of Jonathan Panzo, a U17 World Cup winner with England and two-time English youth league champion. Panzo joined the Blues as a U9, and last season appeared in U18 Premier League, FA Youth Cup and UEFA Youth League. He also has 32 appearances for England up to the U18 level.
Apart from the Emenalo factor, Panzo’s transfer is concerning in light of Harvey St. Clair’s recent move to Venezia in Serie B. The Blues rarely sell teenagers, yet have lost two this June. Both players, despite their young age, had nearly a decade at Cobham. This speaks to a growing problem with morale and retention at the academy. Players are concluding (recognizing?) at increasingly young ages that they have little hope of worthwhile playing time with Chelsea. They are leaving their boyhood club – one that is very successful at the youth level and at the senior level – so they can develop into professional footballers.
Chelsea’s issue is the disconnect between their success at those two levels. The players who raise the youth trophies rarely go on to raise the senior trophies. Worse still, those youth trophies seem to have little impact on the players’ development. Regardless of their skill or their potential, they know they have years of loans ahead of them. Or, if they are “lucky” enough to stay at Stamford Bridge, a handful of stoppage time appearances.
After years of watching this precedent develop, St. Clair and Panzo are cutting to the chase and taking a transfer before they turn 20. Why take the risk of being in suspended animation like Nathaniel Chalobah or Nathan Ake in the hopes that they will be the next Andreas Christensen? The odds for the former far outweigh the latter. Meanwhile, a guaranteed starting XI spot awaits elsewhere in Europe.
Michael Emenalo’s role seals the irony of Jonathan Panzo’s transfer. Emenalo built the loan system into what it is, for better or worse. He left just as it finally fulfilled its purpose via Andreas Christensen. Now Emenalo is in France, recruiting someone who does not want to be in the system he created.
AS Monaco has a successful record of promoting, playing and selling young players. They regularly have several teenagers in their starting XI, and many of them move to bigger clubs on substantial transfer fees in their early 20s. This gives Michael Emenalo plenty to offer disaffected Chelsea youth. They can either follow their academy predecessors and board the loan train for Coventry City or Sheffield United, or they could go to club that opened all the doors for Kylian Mbappe, Thomas Lemar, Bernardo Silva and Tiemoue Bakayoko.
The last few months have forced a re-assessment of Michael Emenalo’s time at Chelsea. He implemented a coherent, long-term strategy as technical director. Whether you agree with it or not, it was better than the vacuum the Blues have allowed to persist in his absence.
Perhaps Emenalo’s time at AS Monaco will reshape his Chelsea legacy by revealing the club’s role in all those things he took the blame for. If he can persuade young players that AS Monaco will be everything he wanted Chelsea to be, but this time he actually has the club’s backing, the south of France will become a popular destination for young Blues. Without a technical director of their own to oppose these efforts, Chelsea will be nearly powerless to persuade them otherwise. Michael Emenalo will have the first and last word in these conversations.
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Hopefully Emenalo will be generous enough to let Chelsea add a buy-back clause in these transfer contracts. He may even take a few players on loan, just for old time’s sake.