Bazilian teenager Piazon heads Chelsea’s next generation
Andre Villas-Boas said on Thursday that there was a “generation” of talented young players finally set to emerge from Chelsea’s much-vaunted youth academy into the first team.
While reiterating his belief that English youth football needs to be revolutionised — and again flagging up the idea of clubs such as Chelsea having B teams in the Championship — the manager insisted there were players who could make it.
No one has emerged to play regularly for Chelsea since John Terry, whose first-team debut was in 1998, but Villas-Boas named three players in the under-18s squad for whom he had high hopes. They are Nathan Ake, Adam Nditi and Lucas Piazon, none of whom was born in England.
Ake, a skilful Dutch midfielder, was signed by Chelsea in 2010, aged 16, causing a row with his former club Feyenoord. Nditi, 17, another midfielder but who can play at left-back, arrived at the club four years ago after coming to England from Tanzania.
Piazon was signed by Chelsea recently having agreed a deal to leave his Brazilian club Sao Paulo last March. The attacking midfielder — 18 on Friday — is one of the hottest young talents in South American football.
“We have a good youth team coming through from the under-18s,” Villas-Boas said. “Good, good talent. It’s still a massive jump, again [to come]. Will it be too big a gap to come straight into the first team? Maybe yes.”
He stressed he had not given up on another trio of young players: Josh McEachran, Ryan Bertrand and Sam Hutchinson. “We’ve recently had Hutchinson coming back from a possible career-ending injury; we have Ryan Bertrand; Josh McEachran is now on loan [at Swansea City] and we hope for big things for him. So we produce talent,” Villas-Boas said.
But he insisted it would still be difficult for any young player to become a Chelsea regular. Carlo Ancelotti had high hopes for Fabio Borini, Patrick Van Aanholt, Jeffrey Bruma and McEachran and Bertrand who are yet to make that breakthrough.
Villas-Boas said: “The one who really makes it, makes it into a great player,” As hard as that is. John Terry made it as one of the best central defenders in the world. Look what is happening with Oriol [Romeu] – he’s triumphing from the second division in Spain to the Premier League here.”
Romeu was acquired from Barca B by Chelsea last summer and Villas-Boas compared the merits of the Spanish system. “The youth development system in England is not right, in my belief. There is plenty of effort and talks to get it right but, in my opinion, it is not,” he said.
“The reserve team league is not competitive. The youth levels are not competitive enough. The Youth Cup: does it favour talent or competition? In my opinion there is a missed link between age groups in all competitions. There should be national championships played between teams from around the country.”
Beyond that Villas-Boas said, again, that he would like to see a Chelsea B — as Barca B do — playing in the second tier, the Championship. “If the European model is applied in England, it could be tested,” he explained. “The reserve team, for all the hard work, is not competitive. It serves the first team, but it doesn’t serve the progression of talent coming through.”
He said he would not like clubs to acquire smaller clubs so they can become “feeders”. “There is more of a cultural identity if it’s called a ‘B team’. It’s the same name, the same environment. If it’s a feeder club, I couldn’t call a player up to my first team until the transfer window opens.
“What happens in Barcelona B is a good model in terms of competitions. They promote talent. That’s the main difference I see. If your B team plays in the Championship where they are fourth or sixth and threatening, playing good football, you’d call them up.”
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