At the time of writing, Paul Pogba is the world’s most
expensive footballer, and his story is well known; he played for Manchester
United’s academy, was allowed to leave at the end of his contract, he
flourished at Juventus, and United had to pay more money for him than for any
other player in history to get him back. Oh and there was a video with Stormzy
in there somewhere. United’s blunder was clear to see – they had a potentially
world class player on their hands, and they let him leave the club for
compensation.
Fast forward to this summer, and Dominic Solanke finds
himself in an eerily similar position to the Frenchman. Solanke, like Pogba, is
an Under 20 World Cup Tournament and Golden Ball winner, leaving a top 4 club
after his contract has been allowed to expire, after having limited
opportunities in the first team. The similarities are uncanny. However United,
unlike Chelsea, are famous for developing players through the youth system,
whereas Chelsea dish out more loans than Wonga.com. Perhaps Solanke’s departure
might see things change in that respect.
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| The youngster has a bright future |
Chelsea’s youth teams have gained a reputation over the last
few years for being outstanding at football, and the evidence is there to back
it up; they’ve won 6 out of the last 8 FA Youth Cups – including the last 4 on
the bounce – and they’ve won 2 out of the 4 UEFA Youth League tournaments. Yet somehow,
they have still been unable to produce a consistent first team player from the
academy that isn’t named John Terry. Solanke was a key part of that academy
team for a couple of seasons. He ended the 2014/15 season with 41 goals at
youth level, and went on to be the third highest goalscorer for Vitesse in the
Eredevisie (in his first season playing senior football no less) and he has
still only made one competitive appearance for Chelsea – as a late substitute
in a 6-0 win over Maribor in the Champions League – no wonder he was apprehensive
about signing a new contract.
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| Tammy Abraham was one of Chelsea's loan stars |
Chelsea’s use of the loan system goes some way to explaining
why it’s hard for their talented youngsters to make a splash in the first team
pool. Last season Chelsea loaned out 37 players. Thirty. Seven. A whole Premier
League squad size worth and then some. Among those players were Izzy Brown and
Lewis Baker – players who, along with Solanke, Jose Mourinho was confident
would play for England – he was even willing to take the blame if it didn’t
happen on his watch. Jose Mourinho! OFFEREING TO TAKE RESPONISBILTY FOR
SOMETHING! This is the same Mourinho who has garnered a reputation (fairly or
otherwise) for not trusting young players in his team. Nathaniel Chalobah was
given a place in the first team squad (and was used sparingly) after completing
his 6th loan spell the previous season.
A video made by uMAXit on YouTube sums up Chelsea’s youth and
loan policy. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG6kXJl5VQU&t=202s)
Essentially, players are developed primarily to make money, rather than to be
assets to the first team squad. Even if that makes financial sense (they site
Ryan Bertrand as a typical example – they paid £250,000 for him from Gillingham
and sold him to Southampton for £10m, thus making a profit of £9.75m), it is
absurd for an academy as good as Chelsea’s to be used purely for making money.
Solanke managed to avoid the loan vortex last season, but you’d be forgiven for
assuming that he wasn’t actually at the club. He didn’t appear in a single one
of the club’s 46 games.
Solanke’s performances for Chelsea and England at youth
level have shown that he has the potential to be a special player. Liverpool
have snapped him up, and given that Jurgen Klopp likes working with young
players, he could be one of the biggest coups of the transfer market thus far. There’s
every chance that Solanke could follow Dele Alli or Marcus Rashford in having a
big impact on the Premier League. United realised their mistake with Pogba and
rectified it in the most expensive way possible. If Chelsea were to do the same
with Solanke in a few years, it wouldn’t fix the underlying problem. The best
academy in the country, and that’s undoubtedly what Chelsea are at the moment,
should be producing players for the first team. But that can’t happen if their
talented youngsters are seen as walking pound signs. If Solanke’s departure
leads to success for the player, which it very well might do, then that might
be enough to make Chelsea re-think how they use their production line. After all,
a squad built around a nucleus of talented youngsters has worked out quite well
in the past, hasn’t it?
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