As the season approaches it final months, it is quite easy to forget about the going ons at the Chelsea academy and concentrate on seeing if we can avoid ending a gloomy season empty handed. However with the continued progress of the current youth players in the FA Youth Cup, such amnesic moments would only be prevalent in the minds of fans that are either blissfully ignorant of the academy's exploits or those that simply don't care.
What most Chelsea fans won't have missed is the steady flow of news claiming we have signed another youngster from foreign shores. While the latest linked name Lucas Piazon might never be able to qualify as an homegrown player due to FIFA restrictions, many of the other acquisitions will quite easily be classified as Homegrown players. Under the Homegrown players rule, a player is classified as such if he has spent over 3 years in a English/Welsh FA registered club before his 21st birthday. While the purpose of the rule is worthy of a debate of its own, the idea in this article is to look at the trend and see how young foreign imports (i will call them Home raised players for the purpose of this article) have developed against Homegrown players (players acquired locally or nationally).
A quick look at the current academy graduates playing in the Premier League as established stars may shed some light on the situation. From memory names that comes to mind are;
John Terry
Robert Huth
Carlton Cole
Two of the above were acquired locally while 1 was recruited internationally. A good start for arguing the case that local Homegrown players might be more beneficial than internationally home raised players especially with the contribution of John Terry to our recent success in the Premier League. But its not that simple as anyone that has been captivated by Barcelona in recent years will know that the gem that is Messi was acquired from foreign shores into their academy. That fact in itself must be one of the incentives that has clubs scouting all over the world looking for their own gem.
Our aggressive search started in the Roman Abramovich era and our first look back is at the academy intake of the 2005 -2006 season. The list below as kindly provided by JUNI (www.twitter.com/chelseayouth) comprises of the player intakes that year.
Scott Sinclair
Ryan Bertrand
Ricardo Fernandes
Fabio Ferreira
Sam Hutchinson
Liam Bridcutt
Shaun Cummings
Jack Cork
Hamzi Ismail
Tomi Saarelma
Harry Worley
Of the 11 intakes that year, 8 were Homegrown while 3 were potentially home raised players. A quick look at the clubs the players are currently playing at shows that the homegrown players were the most successful from this bunch.
All the 3 players acquired from foreign shores from the intake seems to have faded into the football wilderness. That said they are still relatively young and can still go on to have decent careers.
They can however consider themselves lucky unlike 2 of the local lads from this bunch of intakes who seemingly have no future as professional footballers. Hamzi Ismail the versatile Somalian youth player that came up through the ranks seems to have disappeared while Sam Hutchison's injuries forced him into retirement just as the door of opportunity of joining the 1st team seemed to be opening for him.
Of the 6 remaining Homegrown players from this batch, 2 are still at the club with a very good chance of making the breakthrough to the 1st team if given the chance. Scott Sinclair might still make Chelsea regret the decision to let him move on after lighting up the Championship this year. The other 3 HG players have moved on and seemingly found their levels at lower divisions were they can play sizable parts in thier teams fortunes. All in all Homegrown players seemed to have been the more successful from this group. But how much of that is down to the low numbers of foreign recruits or is it all down to the quality of the local lads? A look at the consequetive yearly intakes might shed more light on things.
The next group of intakes consisted of the players below.
Michael Woods
Tom Taiwo
Nana Ofori
Miroslav Stoch
Lee Sawyer
Sergio Tejera
Ben Sahar
Rhys Taylor
That year's intake was at a 5:3 ratio of Homegrown players to international recruits.
In terms of success, the stand out is Miroslav Stoch who is now a fully fledged Slovak international. The homegrown players from this bunch have not fared better than the international recruits as yet. Tom Taiwo, Nana Ofori and Lee Sawyer are now plying their trades at lower leagues in the english league. The other two in Michael Woods and Rhys Taylor are still at the club but their chances of breaking through are looking increasingly slim. The foreign lads from this bunch have arguably fared better but there is still time on all the mentioned players sides. All the 3 foreign players have mooved on and seemingly found places where they fit in. Stoch is a fully fledged 1st team player at Fenerbache, Ben Sahar has seemingly retraced his steps and found a steady footing on loan at Hapoel tel Aviv while Sergio Tejera is slowly climbing the progressive ladder at Mallorca after initially settling in their B team.
The 2006/2007 intake was low and more importantly there seemingly were too few academy graduates in that list. So it is not suprising that the next intake was larger with more academy graduates in the midst of mixed bunch.
Jacob Mellis
Daniel Philliskirk
Nikki Ahamed
Billy Joe King
Adam Phillip
Jack Saville
Jordan Tabor
Ben Gordon
Jordan Hibbert
Fabio Borini
Gael Kakuta
Niclas Heimann
Jan Sebek
The players above were academy intakes of the 2007/2008 season. Of that list of 13, 6were academy graduates having being with the club at younger age groups. 3 were homegrown players acquired from other english clubs while the other 4 were internationaly recruited. At this point, it is pivotal that any mention of success or the lack of it is mentioned and taken with a pinch of salt as the players from this group are still 19/20 years old. An age at which success or the lack of it cant be categorically judged. However a quick recap might help see where the players are at on their developmental and career ladder. Of the 6 academy graduates, only 1 remains at the club in Adam Phillip. Jack Saville is now on loan at Stockport via Southampton while the others have not fared any better they are either without any meaningful clubs or at the lower echolons of the lower leagues.
The 3 Homegrown players acquired from other english clubs are all still registered with the club but are all out on loan. Of the 4 foreign lads, 1 has left the club in Niclas Heimann. The other goalkeeper from that list Jan Sebek is on the fringes of the first team and might still have any opportunity to stake his claim. Gael Kakuta needs no re introduction and is very close to adding to the meaningful 1st team minutes he garnered this season. While Fabio Borini's impending departure from the club is not a fair reflection of the talent he has. The foreign recruits seem to have fared slightly better from this group especially in Fabio Borini and Gael Kakuta but the 3 homegrown lads are still in with a slight chance of becoming 1st team players in future years.
The next seasons intake saw
Frank Nouble
Tom Hayden
Jeffrey Bruma
Vicenzo Camilleri
Conor Clifford
Jacopo Sala
Kaby
Marko Mitrovic
Aldi Haxhia
Sam Walker
Of this intake of 10, 6 were acquired from foreign shores making it the intake with the highest ratio of foreign scholars. It will be unfair to judge the success or lack of it of the players above due to their ages. however its worth noting that of the 4 local players, 3 are no longer with the club with Nouble turning down the proffessional contract on offer to him and Hayden choosing to quit football to concentrate on full time education. Aldi Haxhia was released after not making the grade. Sam Walker the other local goalkeeper from this group was acquired from neighbours Millwall and is currently gaining valuable playing time at Barnet. Of the 6 foreign lads, Camilleri is the only one that is not with the club anymore. Jeffrey Bruma and Conor Clifford are out on loan while Jacopo Sala and Kaby are now reserve regulars. Mitrovic has just recovered from a long term injury. All seems to be progressing well with a chance of making the grade here if opportunities are given and taken.
The last 2 season's intakes will not be detailed in this article has it is too early in the players careers. But the 2009/2010 season saw a scholar intake of 12 with 10 being not only locally/nationally acquired player but all having graduated through the academy after spending time at younger age groups at the club. The only 2 foreign players that year were Lalkovic who had already being at the club for over 3 years by then and Prosenik.
The 2010/2011 intake was 8 with 2 foreign representations in Tomas Kalas and Amin Affane. Again the 6 local lads as with the 2009/2010 intake were academy graduates and had all being at the clubs at younger age groups. The two year contrasted the early intakes where some of the local/national lads where acquired from other english clubs.
This and many other trends can be intepretted from the yearly intakes but one thing remains a constant and that is the desire of the club to produce the best possible talents and in many peoples eyes, there is no wrong or right way of doing so as long as the results are there for all to see.
