Chelsea news: Blues have Erik ten Hag to thank for SAVING their academy

Chelsea’s academy has been one of the best in world football for over a decade and Cobham remains a gem in the youth set-up world.

The Blues’ matchday squad for their Champions League final win over Manchester City in 2021 featured five academy graduates – Mason Mount, Reece James, Andreas Christensen, Billy Gilmour and Callum Hudson-Odoi – while a plethora of others have broken into the senior team in recent years.

Academy graduates are increasingly seen as vessels for “pure profit” and the club have become obsessed with signing talented youngsters from across the world rather than promoting from within.

Conor Gallagher, Ian Maatsen, Lewis Hall, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tino Anjorin, Bashir Humphreys, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, Gilmour and Christensen have all either been sold or left on Bosman deals under the ownership of Clearlake Capital, while just shy of €1 billion has been spent on signing players aged 23 or under since Roman Abramovich’s departure.

That paints a very clear picture: Chelsea want to sell their youngsters to generate “pure profit” and effectively sign replacements from abroad.

However, the Europa Conference League has provided new boss Enzo Maresca with an opportunity to integrate several youngsters from Chelsea’s famed academy this season.

Tyrique George and Josh Acheampong are now fully-fledged members of the Chelsea senior squad, largely due to their impressive performances in Europe, and a total of eight academy stars have been handed their first-team debuts this season.

Among them is 16-year-old Reggie Walsh, who became the third-youngest player in Chelsea’s history thanks to an appearance off the bench versus Djurgardens last week. He went one better by becoming the club’s youngest ever European starter when he was named in Maresca’s starting XI for the second leg on Thursday night.

The teenager, who only has two appearances for Chelsea’s U21 side, played the entire 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge, and he caught the eye with his impressive close control, his tenacity off the ball and his match intelligence.

In fact, Chelsea ended the 1-0 win on Thursday night with a front four of Shumaira Mhueka (17), Genesis Antwi (17), Walsh (16) and George (19).

With a plethora of academy stars being sold since Clearlake Capital’s arrival, many Chelsea youngsters may have opted to leave the club this summer.

However, the Europa Conference League has given Maresca the perfect opportunity to hand out debuts and prove that a first-team pathway does exist if players apply themselves well in training.

Had Chelsea qualified for the Europa League last season, they would’ve faced far tougher opponents in the knockout stages and there’s a high probability that very few youngsters would’ve made their debuts.

If that had happened, there’s a good chance that several Cobham graduates would’ve looked to leave Chelsea in search of regular minutes, especially given Clearlake Capital’s approach to transfers.

Qualifying for the Europa Conference League instead has therefore been a major saving grace when it comes to Chelsea’s world-renowned academy. And Erik ten Hag is to thank.

Why Chelsea have Erik ten Hag to thank

Thanks to a fantastic end to last season, Mauricio Pochettino guided Chelsea to a sixth place finish in the Premier League. It wasn’t enough to save his job, but it was meant to secure Europa League football for the Blues.

However, that was snatched away by Manchester United – who demoted Chelsea to the Europa Conference League play-offs by winning the FA Cup final against Man City.

At the time, it looked like a hammer blow for Chelsea. Now, it looks like a blessing in disguise.

Maresca has been able to promote several academy kids into the first-team, Chelsea have the chance to complete the European trophy set and they have the opportunity to qualify for the next year’s Champions League through their league position, in part thanks to their ability to rest key players in midweek. Win, win, win.