Three big questions: Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and year two

3. What form does the youth revolution take now?

This is probably the second most hotly debated topic after what is success this season. Lampard came to Chelsea for two main reasons. Number one was to make the club feel like itself again after the culture had eroded. The second was to create a pipeline for the academy players and young loan army players to the first team after previous managers either outright ignored both or used them minimally.

Any number of managers could have succeeded at both with the transfer ban in place, but none would have been as effective as Lampard. For the first reason, it required someone that understood what made Chelsea successful last decade. For the second reason, a manager that has a history of playing the youth was needed. Lampard showed that at Derby County and he made sure to lay that same foundation at Chelsea.

That was last season however. This season, the new signings have overstuffed the squad. Players will have to leave and then the question remains as to how new players from the loan army and academy will break through over them.

This is a bit like the problem Barcelona and any club that uses youth faces. When a youth player breaks through, whoever is coming through the academy needs to prove themselves better than the players ahead of them. The academy then needs to be constantly churning out generations better than the last or the pipeline becomes blocked. In addition, the young players doing well frees up resources for the club to spend bigger on other positions. That blocks the pathway for that position even more so than it would otherwise.

The players that have already broken through like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, and Billy Gilmour will have no worries. The players that haven’t yet, such as Ian Maatsen or Tino Anjorin, will find life more difficult than ever before. That does not mean they cannot break through; it just means that it will be more difficult and the loan army may have to be a viable option for them again.

What questions do you think need to be asked of Lampard ahead of the new season? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter!