-Gators.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Youth is Good
While I am not totally opposed to splashing out the big bucks on stars every now and then, but I feel that our beloved Blues could use a fresh injection of youth into our team. I think we took a massive step in that direction with the acquisition of Ross Turnbull, Yuri Zhirkov, and Daniel Sturridge. Aside from these three talented youngsters though, we have plenty of talented youth that is waiting in the wings, rearing to get a chance to play. I am in no way a Scolari advocate, but I will have to say that he tended to play more of the youngsters, i.e. Stoch, Di Santo, Mancienne. I hope that in this coming season Carlo will do the same. I am of the opinion that if we can't play our youth in the big games, that we should at least play the likes of Gael Kakuta, Sergio Tejera, Fabio Ferreira, etc, in some of our Carling Cup, FA Cup, or Champions League group stage games. The least we could do is play them at Three Points Lane. Let me know what you think, I would love to hear your criticisms.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would love to see Gael Kakuta. He looks like one of Chelsea's future legends!!
ReplyDelete--Blue Is The Colour.
I do support your idea however, to be honest, the current youngsters at Chelsea are mainly all flops. Frank Arnesen was appointed to take care of this, and has spent alot of money on players which has come to waste. Sadly our youth system doesn't compare to those of Arsenal or Barcelona. In the recent U21 Championship in Sweden, in the England squad we only had Mancienne, who doesn't even start! For a club like Chelsea that is frankly appauling, we also have Cork and Woods who didn't make the squad. In response Gators, I would play youngsters in less important games, but our youngsters really aren't that good. I remember going to the Chelsea Liverpool match at Stamford Bridge last year, when our FANTASTIC home record went to waste in that 1-0 defeat. I remember Scolari bringing on Di Santo in the last 10 minutes, which i viewed a horrible mistake. He's only 20, and to be honest not a wonderkid. Please reply with your thoughts.
ReplyDelete"A house cannot stand without a solid foundation"
ReplyDeleteWith that, Chelsea is a house, a big one at that, but we dont have much of a youth system, our foundation. And without a youth system that competes with the best in the world, we dont have a sustained hope at competing for silverware. We cant be the Chelsea that spends monet forever. It is about time our youth system matched up, in terms of status, to its senior counterpart.
Dan i agree that most of our youngsters are flops. We havent done well as far as developing talent, and we should be getting top talent, we are Chelsea.
Last year (07) when Di Santo was brought he scored every game except for one for reserves (if i remember correctly) had 0.95 goal-to-game ratio. What happens to him in big games I seriously dont understand.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not that we dont have quality youth or reserves (which is not true, although you cant compare with Barca/Man U/ or Arsena; they have build it for years), but most of them are backs or cdm!!!!! With only few being able to attack (Kakuta (prodigy) and Stoch pbbly the only worthwile mentioning) we are really becoming a defence factory.
on other hand is it really that bad? Maybe in spite of todays commercialization of the sport and having the best defenders in the world it is better to "niche" ourselves and supply defenders to the world, as Arsenal does with attackers?
Maybe we will see teams rushing amd bidding crazymoney to sign our youth defenders in 8-12 years?
I, for one, certainly hope so.
P.S. last season Kakuta was injured, played 5 games scored 2 goals, and set up 2
Forgot most inportant...
ReplyDeleteDont think Carlo will play a lot of youngsters, not his style. See my article http://bluearmycfcblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/carlo.html
I think that Carlo will choose to play the youth, at least Mancienne and Sturridge, more than he normally tends to, due to the Champions League being the main focus of the club, fans and Roman. I agree though, we definitely need to beef up the youth system!
ReplyDeleteNo i agree with Super Blue Lion who says that Carlo will not play youngsters. Look at his Milan team.
ReplyDeleteBut I do disagree with you on the point where you think we have QUALITY youth. What quality youth? I looked at a few videos of Kakuta, he does look good on his feet. But what else? Stoch is a joke, he'll never be physical enough nor have the talent.
Look at this article, Frank Arnesen is all to blame for this awful youth programme. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/07/05/pat-s-it-115875-21495382/
I hope this proves my point...
And a defensive factory?
ReplyDeleteApart from Mancienne (who doesn't even make the England U21 team)
who?
The only other talent in defence is Cork who might have a chance of Chelsea football, when he's older.
The problem is we don't have the talent for a good youth programme. Look at Arsenal, their RECENT talent has been fabregas (soon to be best passer in the world). Clichy (soon to be one of the best left backs in the world) etc.
Those two players were signed by Arsenal as Abramovich's reign began. I mean come on we're Chelsea a Top 2 Club, Arsenal scrape 4th every year. And they have a better academy than us? Unacceptable.
Dan I try not to rad Mirror and Sun, bad for my digestion 8)
ReplyDeleteHowever, canst say much as I havent seen too many youth games (only recently subcribed for ChelseaTV), but it seemed to me that Stich made the natonal team already, and lets say if we produce in next two years Kakuta, Manicenne and Stoch its not bad is it?
In any case if we have signed so many youngsters that are bad, then first of all it means that the biggest problem is in scouting organisation, great scouts produce great players. How about buying THEM from Arsenal and Villa (great youth by the way)
damned thos typos again. (I meant Stoch of course not Stich 8)))
ReplyDeletesmall-yes, not physical-yes. But same was said about Luka Modric, too lightweight, look at him now--proper development of vision and technique can make its way...