Chelsea: Keeping Ethan Ampadu and Reece James in Blue is best investment

Maurizio Sarri shoved the youth aside one last time on his way out Chelsea’s door. The temporarily-overshadowed rumours around Ethan Ampadu and Reece James speak to the importance of the next manager keeping the squad, team and club together.

Ethan Ampadu and Reece James are high on the list of players who need a large helping of quality minutes next season. Ampadu needs to recoup the lost developmental time from last season on the bench at Chelsea, while Reece James must not let anything about his playing situation compound the setback of his recent injury.

Both players were in the loan rumour mill last week. Ethan Ampadu is supposedly a top target for newly-promoted Aston Villa who, for the time being, still have John Terry as an assistant coach. James is linked with a return to the Championship, this time with Swansea City.

These are not the sharpest rumours for either player, so they may just be the usual silly season go-round rather than any real possibility. Ampadu would not be a smooth fit at Aston Villa. They have a strong corps of returning centrebacks, and a group of midfielders who better suit their tactical set-up – on top of already being embedded in the squad – than Ampadu. While the possibility of Ampadu developing as a defender under John Terry is always enticing, the top priority is playing time. No amount of training under the best would make up for what would likely be limited minutes.

Ampadu’s rumour at least brings him into the Premier League. A move to Swansea would keep James in the middle part of the second tier at a time when he is roundly considered capable and ready of playing in the top flight.

The last time Chelsea took one of their best Championship loanees and shuffled him off to Swansea, the Swans were at least in the Premier League. But that season proved quite a hiccup for Tammy Abraham, who found himself back in the Championship the next season with… Aston Villa.

Of course, James – as a defender – would have much more to do at Swansea than Abraham would as striker, even accounting for the different tier.

While Chelsea have a habit of kicking the can on such decisions far enough down the road that few good options remain, with this particular interregnum at Stamford Bridge, the Blues should give their incoming manager every possible option to evaluate and hopefully keep both young men.

The next manager… Let’s call him Frank L. No, that’s too obvious. F. Lampard, that’ll do… has more than the usual amount of healing and cohering on his early to-do list. Whereas other managers merely had to bring together a fractured locker room, this “F. Lampard” of ours has to mend relationships within his squad and between the academy, first team and fans.

Reece James, in particular, carries symbolic value along with his age and talent. He joined Chelsea FC at age six, and only left for last season’s loan to Wigan. This puts him in the line with John Terry, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Callum Hudson-Odoi, along with another potential first-team regular next season, Mason Mount. Ampadu has incredible talent and made a strong impression on Chelsea fans next year, but Blues fans have been invested in James for years – just as he has been invested in the club.

F. Lampard understands these relationships, and has the intelligence to know how to balance them with the competing concerns of squad size, a game’s tactical demands, ensuring veterans are not needlessly sidelined and doing what’s best for the player and the club over the long term.

The first step in balancing these concerns is acknowledging they each exist. F. Lampard knows as well as anyone how squad cohesion – at both ends of the age and experience spectrum – contributes to success. He also knows the easiest and cheapest way to build a squad – such as at cash-strapped Derby County or Chelsea under a transfer ban – is to keep the best players.

Part of why he knows this is because of a manager who taught him so much: Jose Mourinho. Speaking about his Champions League-winning season at Porto, Mourinho said:

"Sometimes the best investment that you can do is to keep your best players. So when, even now, people speak about that club spends X millions buying and that team didn’t buy anyone, I always say ‘Who did they sell?’ ‘They didn’t sell anybody.’ Ah! So they kept all the top players they had. That’s the best investment. – The Coaches’ Voice"

Chelsea have already lost one of their two best players in Eden Hazard. Only N’Golo Kante approaches Hazard’s absolute level of talent, but absolute levels are not the appropriate standard. The manager must make decisions relative to the players he has, which means – as Mourinho said – keeping the best players they already have. From that foundation the team can buy other players as necessary, but only if necessary and, in Chelsea’s case, if possible.

Ethan Ampadu and Reece James may not yet be two of the best players in England, but they could be two of the best players at Chelsea. James, in particular, is one of the best players Chelsea have at his position, simply by default. The Blues cannot bring in anyone better, so why send out on loan two of the best they have? Keeping these players in the squad this year could set them up for being in the squad for many more years.

If Ampadu and James benefit from the transfer ban constraining the club’s choices and F. Lampard recognizing the many dimensions of value they provide, they will be among the best investments the club could make under any circumstances.