Chelsea’s lack of ability to bring youth into the squad is finally starting to hurt them. The kids will not wait any longer and will depart for a chance.
Chelsea’s academy first looked capable of making positive returns for the club in Carlo Ancelotti’s reign as manager. Then, Josh McEachran was the next big thing and Ancelotti trusted him from time to time. But then Ancelotti was infamously sacked in the tunnel and McEachran fell out of favor, and eventually, out of the club.
The same story repeated itself over and over. Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne both departed due to lack of chances and made themselves world class. Nathaniel Chalobah, once the gem of the loan army, got sick of waiting after finally joining the first team.
Now Chelsea is seeing the likes of Johnathan Panzo and Dominic Solanke leaving the club for others. Higher up, players like Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kurt Zouma are saying it is time for the first team or they are leaving. The seeds of the youth and academy exodus started years ago and this is just the start of it.
Unfortunately, it is understandable why these players want to leave. At youth level, they have won accolade after accolade, trophy after trophy. But despite being in one of the world’s best academies, there is no room for them in the first team. Andreas Christensen is the only true success story and he was the first since John Terry. That is over a decade of drought that will worry every youth player.
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Furthermore, it does not help to see the likes of Lukaku or De Bruyne leave and make a career. Or the likes of Jadon Sancho, an international teammate of many academy players, go to Dortmund and breakthrough. Academy player and youth are seeing chances elsewhere. Their desire to play is outweighing their desire to fight for a Chelsea spot.
The Blues must figure out how to stop this exodus before it becomes any worse. But one of the major reasons behind it is the constant managerial change. Every time a manager is sacked and a new one brought in, it is like hitting the reset button on every young player. They must prove themselves again before having a chance at the first team.
This has been true with every manager Chelsea have had. The first season they go with the trusted, established professionals. The second season they start to incorporate younger players. Rarely does a Chelsea manager get a third season, the one where the youth would start to break through.
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Maurizio Sarri is the latest manager to (maybe) come to Chelsea. It is a stretch to say there is evidence that he is a manager who plays the youth. It is also a stretch to say he will not. But it is that uncertainty, piled onto years of it, that will see youth hit the eject button. At the end of the day, they must look out for their own careers. And if Chelsea will not offer or appear to offer a chance, then the exodus will continue until Chelsea is a retirement community.