Chelsea youngsters hope to make senior impact after Cup win

 
Special moment: Ruben Loftus-Cheek

After Chelsea’s thrilling FA Youth Cup triumph, manager Adi Viveash said he hopes some of his victorious players are involved with the first team this summer.

Viveash’s teenagers certainly looked like they had the character of Chelsea players as they scored three goals in the final 13 minutes — the last two from Dominic Solanke — to beat Fulham 5-3 last night and 7-6 on aggregate to win their third Youth Cup in five years.

“I don’t think they can do much more in terms of winning,” Viveash said. “But we know the difference between playing Under-18s and 21s and the first team. Somebody has got to take a gamble.”

With the World Cup dominating so many first-teamers’ summers, Viveash hopes his youngsters, like Ruben Loftus-Cheek (left), can make an impact. He added: “I would hope, at least in the pre-season, some of the players who played last night, and more from the Under-21s, would travel with the first team. And then it is down to them.”

Chelsea have struggled to move players from their youth teams into the first team in the past. Josh McEachran, their last great hope, was given his last Chelsea start in November 2011. Viveash used the carrot of impressing the watching Jose Mourinho and Michael Emenalo at half-time, with his team 3-2 down and 6-4 on aggregate.

He said: “I told them, ‘The hierarchy will have looked at that first half and said it wasn’t good enough’. If you want to play for the first team you’ve got to play better.”

Chelsea did, though, showing a resilience and patience when chasing the game that can only have impressed those watching.

Solanke, who has trained with the first team, was the star, making Chelsea’s first two goals and scoring their fourth and fifth.

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