Chelsea, Man City moving in opposite directions on youth development

Maurizio Sarri had two 22-year olds in Chelsea’s starting XI against Derby County, and subbed them off for two of the oldest players on the team. Manchester City, on the other hand, started three teenagers – one of whom scored a brace – and subbed on a third.

Don’t look now, but Manchester City are starting to act like a real football club. Pep Guardiola is showing there need not be a contradiction between assembling the most expensive squad in football history and developing homegrown youth talent into the first team. While Chelsea are scuttling their few putative academy success stories, Manchester City are playing more youth, selling young players to top-level teams and becoming a valuable source for national squads.

City faced Fulham in their Carabao Cup fifth-round match. Guardiola tabbed three teenagers for his starting XI: goalkeeper Arijanet Muric, midfielder Phil Foden and forward Brahim Diaz. This was Diaz’s second appearance and first start for the Citizens, and he scored in the 18′ and 65′ to give City a 2-0 win. Late in the game, Guardiola gave a debut to another teenager, Claudio Gomes.

Maurizio Sarri, on the other hand, played his usual B-team lineup. The youngest starters were Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Andreas Christensen. Loftus-Cheek was one of the Blues’ best players on the night, and Christensen among the worst. With them in the squad were four players 30 years old or older. By contrast, City had only two players over 27: Fabian Delph (28) and Vincent Kompany (32).

Whereas Guardiola used his substitution to make his squad even younger, Sarri pushed in the complete opposite direction. Christensen came off for David Luiz (32 – third-oldest outfield player in the team) and Loftus-Cheek made way for Pedro (31- fifth-oldest).

While Muric, Foden, Diaz and Gomes enjoyed their outing against a Premier League-strength Fulham XI, Callum Hudson-Odoi watched from Chelsea’s bench yet again. Because he has been tied to the first team so much this season he has only four appearances – all complete games – with the U23’s in the Premier League 2.

Between the U23’s and the Europa League, Hudson-Odoi has a risible 390 total minutes this season. In one of those weird twists of ironic numerical banter, if those minutes were all with the first team they would place him right in between Gary Cahill and Andreas Christensen.

Brahim Diaz’s contract expires at the end of the season. Pep Guardiola very much hope City can re-sign him, but he and Diaz know how difficult it will be for Diaz to see significant playing time in City’s first team. Real Madrid are poised to sign Diaz if he opts not to stay. Imagine that: leaving Manchester City because there’s not enough playing time to go around, and landing at Real Madrid.

If Diaz leaves – and most signs are he will – he will be taking the Jadon Sancho route out of City and the Premier League into a more regular role with a top European side. This is the absolute best move for these players. City should be commended for their honesty with the players and for not tying them down to worthless contracts. Chelsea’s recent habit is to sign 17- and 18-year old players to five-year deals. These make for great photo ops, but they effectively bind the player to the loan army with no chance of parole to a top tier first team.

Callum Hudson-Odoi is linked with a loan move to Borussia Dortmund in January. If that offer is on the table, he should take it without hesitation and his agent should demand a loan-to-own clause for Dortmund to buy him. If he does well and can stay there, he should. A successful loan to Dortmund means nothing at Chelsea. Just ask Valencia’s back-up striker. Hudson-Odoi has too much potential to be spectating games against Championship sides.

Guardiola included another lesson for Chelsea in his post-match comments. When talking about Diaz’s prospects for cracking the best XI, he said “My opinion is not changed because of two goals. The opinion is so high. But in the top teams like here, to compete with Leroy [Sane], Raz, Bernardo, Sergio [Aguero], Gabriel [Jesus], it is not easy to find space.”

This applies to Chelsea’s situation with Andreas Christensen, but in the other direction. Christensen has struggled mightily in his few appearances this season, and the game against Derby was one of his worst. Despite his drop in form last spring and this season, Christensen is still a talented centre-back with a lot of potential. As long as he continues to develop and build his mental and physical strength, he will succeed anywhere in Europe. No one should change their overall evaluation based on his recent form. The good times still outweigh the bad.

Maurizio Sarri’s decision to substitute him for non-injury reasons was bad enough. That is the sort of thing Jose Mourinho would do to Nemanja Matic. You simply do not sub centre-backs unless their performance is legendarily poor, and sometimes you don’t even then. You certainly don’t compound it by sending on David Luiz. Among the many other messages that sends is “I thought I could trust you, but I couldn’t. Now I must send on my favourite.”

Andreas Christensen may not be playing well this season, but he deserves better than this. His father-agent has likely spent every waking hour since the Derby County tie shopping loans and transfers for January. If Maurizio Sarri does not have 90 minutes in the Carabao Cup for him, there is little reason to see any future for the two to work together.

Chelsea are shedding their reputation as a team that takes young players in, chews them up and spits them out. They are not even bothering with that much effort any more.

Manchester City are pulling ahead of Chelsea as a youth development club. They are giving their players the minutes they need to prove themselves to their national team coaches and clubs interested in buying them. More so, they are doing it while winning trophies and letting the young players have control over their future. This is how City could come to replicate Barcelona’s model of selling young players and then buy them back as stars in their mid-20’s.

That requires the players to have a positive memory of the team and not bear any resentment over their treatment. Chelsea are failing that test wildly.