Chelsea FC: Youth Policy?

Article by Lee Beevor

The signing of Nemanja Matic will undoubtedly strengthen the team. The deeper lying midfielders in our 4-2-3-1 formation consist of Ramires, plus one another. Matic will slot neatly alongside the Brazilian, providing a combination of strong tackling, aerial strength and deft passing. Whilst I still know little else about the player that has now twice belonged to Chelsea, he has a reputation that suggests his purchase represents an upgrade on the current crop.

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Last year’s FA Cup semi-final evidenced how at the highest level, we fell short due to a deficiency in this department. On that day, Yaya Toure battered our midfield, knocking them aside like skittles before marauding towards an over-stretched back four. With the addition of Fernandinho, City is an even more powerful force and has been destroying opponents in a manner akin to Iron Mike Tyson in his prime. Hopefully bringing back Matic will even up the imbalance in this vital part of the pitch.

Whilst pleased with the addition of such a quality player, at a reasonable price in today’s market, I am simultaneously extremely angry. Chelsea’s mismanagement of young players enrages me and buying back a player we once owned is the perfect evidence of this incompetence. Nor is this a new development, as those familiar with the case of Graeme Le Saux will testify. He too was given away as a makeweight before being bought back, at a hugely inflated price, once given the opportunity to prove his skills elsewhere.

The Chelsea propaganda machine churns out constant a stream of rubbish about how important youth development is to the club. There are articles in the magazine and match programmes celebrating the latest talent to play for 5 minutes in the league cup. They tell us about how they are being groomed to join the long line of successful graduates such as John Terry and....erm, Ray Wilkins. West Ham United we certainly are not and quite frankly, never will be!

The reason for this is that our managers have been too scared to blood young players. People can point at Roman and to an extent this is fair, but does not completely excuse those responsible for team selection. Indeed, Roman was not around when Hoddle elected to keep Muzzy Izzet on the bench, instead introducing an established player out of position, when injury dictated an 80th minute switch. This led to the future England international leaving the Bridge with zero first team appearances for a paltry £800,000.

Bringing matters up to date, nothing has changed. Last season, we owned half of the most potent centre forward partnership in English football today. We gave him to Liverpool in exchange for a quarter of what we paid them for Torres. Sturridge has since proved what he always believed; that he is good enough to lead the line at the highest level. Credit is due to AVB for at least giving him sustained game time, albeit wide on the left to accommodate the misfiring Spaniard. Even Jose has caught the disease, loaning out Lukaku so that we can watch a tubby Eto’o, a £50 million scuffed shot specialist and the ungainly Demba. Meanwhile, Romelu continues to bang in the goals, this time for Everton, as he did before at West Brom. Whatever he does will never be enough. Perhaps in time he will score 40 goals for Real Madrid and we can bid £100 million to bring him back.

Welcome Nemanja Matic, R.I.P. the Chelsea youth policy!

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