Chelsea: Mason Mount the lone Blue youth not lagging in “experience capital”

Gianfranco Zola lashed his credibility to Maurizio Sarri’s when he justified Callum Hudson-Odoi’s regular exclusion from the starting XI. Clubs from across Europe give the lie to Chelsea’s excuses.

The easy two-fold response to Gianfranco Zola saying clubs at Chelsea’s level do not give many playing minutes to 18-year olds is to say, you’re right. Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain are not at Chelsea’s level. They are much higher, and there they are regularly playing Vinicius, Jr., Jadon Sancho and Kylian Mbappe. The just-as-easy rebuttal is to say that these are the exceptions who prove the rule. Mbappe, in particular, is the sort of generational talent who makes all comparisons seem weak and facile.

Well, then. Perhaps Kelvin Amian, Arne Maier and Diego Lainez representing Toulouse, Hertha Berlin and Real Betis are more Chelsea’s speed. Or, to keep things closer to home, Declan Rice, Matteo Guendouzi, Tom Davies and Diogo Dalot (West Ham, Arsenal, Everton, Manchester United, respectively).

CIES Football Observatory weighted the playing minutes of young players by the quality of their team to determine their “experience capital.” They looked at players born in each of 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 or later (that means players 21 or younger, if maths are not your strong suit) currently playing across Europe.

By weighting their minutes by team strength, their methodology points toward the value of those minutes. For example, an hour on the pitch for a team battling for a Champions League berth says more about the player and means more for his future than an hour in a relegation scrap. Experience capital also factors in the intrasquad competition for those minutes, pointing to the higher standards a player must meet to be in a strong squad’s starting XI than a weak squad’s.

No Chelsea players are among the 80 CIES listed (20 from each of four age groups). Champions League, Europa League and Premier League clubs are well-represented among the top few players in three of the four groups. The players and teams are not just generational talents and the megaclubs who can afford them. For every Kylian Mbappe and Gianluigi Donnarumma there are several of Houssem Aouar (Lyon), Dayot Upamecano (RB Leipzig) and Justin Kluivert (AS Roma).

The English clubs range from Liverpool (Trent Alexander-Arnold) down to Derby County. Derby County is the one bright spot for Chelsea when it comes to experience capital. Mason Mount and Jayden Bogle are both on the rankings list, making Derby County the only English club with two players among the top 20 for their year group.

Mount’s loan at Vitesse contributes to his tally. However, he already has more minutes in the Championship after half a season than he did in a full season at Vitesse.

This has as much to do with Frank Lampard as it does those two players. It speaks to the importance of what Lampard is doing for Mount (and Fikayo Tomori) and what Lampard will do for Chelsea when he takes the helm at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea’s other tangential representation in the rankings is Christian Pulisic. However, the Blues deserve precisely zero credit because CIES’s analysis ended before Chelsea bought and loaned him. Still, the Blues will benefit from the worthwhile experience he brings.

Aside from Chelsea not giving their young players quality minutes, the experience capital rankings also indict the loan system.

As I wrote in August, the loan army took a wrong turn after Michael Emenalo’s departure. The club started loaning older, more experienced players. These players – who should either have been in the first team or sold – were getting the best loans: Tiemoue Bakayoko to Milan, Kurt Zouma to Everton, Michy Batshuayi to Valencia and now Crystal Palace. While these loans were not coming at the expense of younger Blues, it showed a shift in the purpose and intentions behind the loan system.

The CIES experience capital rankings show the overall low quality of loans going to Chelsea players in a critical, transitional stage of their development. The players are missing out on either minutes or quality at their foster homes.

Mason Mount should not be Chelsea’s only under-21 player to be accumulating significant experience capital. Chelsea should only send players to top-tier or Championship clubs, and within those leagues they should be finding clubs who are in the top half of the table (preferably with European football) and have a demonstrated willingness to play youth players. Otherwise, the loan army lives down to its reputation as a stash house.

Since Chelsea still do not have a technical director (470 days), they need all the help they can get finding the right clubs as loan partners. If FIFA goes ahead with their proposed rule changes regarding loanees, Chelsea will need to send more young players on loan if they plan to keep a large loan system.

CIES made it easy for them to find the clubs and managers they need to start speaking to about the next few seasons. They also made it hard for Gianfranco Zola and Maurizio Sarri to stand by their excuses for sidelining Callum Hudson-Odoi.