Chelsea youth show why they are Europe's best but first team still a distant dream

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP15 March 2017

Chelsea's youngsters last night underlined the club’s superiority at this level, beating Tottenham 2-1 at White Hart Lane in their FA Youth Cup semi-final first leg.

The Blues are surely strong favourites to face Manchester City — 6-0 winners at Stoke — in the final for the third season running as they try to strengthen their grip on the competition.

“With the amount of chances we created, the tie should be put to bed. We kept them to two or three opportunities. With us, you’re talking double figures,” said coach Jody Morris.

It was the Blues’ eighth consecutive FA Youth Cup semi-final and they are aiming to win the trophy for a fourth season in a row, the fifth time in six years. Only Manchester United’s Busby Babes have had comparable success in the competition.

Chelsea have also won back-to-back UEFA Youth League titles — the junior Champions League — but could not defend their title this season after the senior team did not qualify. Spurs have an impressive academy, but Chelsea are the best in Europe at this level.

So why are they so much better than everyone else? Chelsea have earned a reputation for poaching the best young players at other clubs, and Tottenham threatened to report their London rivals for allegedly tapping up England Under-16 international Nya Kirby, who had been training with Spurs’ first team, last year. Isaiah Brown was signed from West Brom after playing in the Premier League aged 16.

But recruitment counts for only a small part of Chelsea’s success. Nine of the 11 who started against Spurs last night came through the club’s development programme, and most joined before their 10th birthdays.

Juan Castillo, signed from Ajax in summer 2016, and Jacob Maddox, poached from Norwich as an Under-14, are the exceptions. It was a similar story for last year’s all-English crop, led by Tammy Abraham, who joined Chelsea aged seven and has scored 18 goals in the Championship this season for loan club Bristol City.

There is also a local feel to the academy staff. Morris came through the ranks alongside John Terry, and Joe Edwards, who coached the last two FA Youth Cup winning sides, has been there for a decade. With Eddie Newton and Paulo Ferreira, both ex-players, Edwards monitors young players on loan. Academy director Neil Bath, who reports to technical director Michael Emenalo, joined part-time in 1993.

It helps that Roman Abramovich is passionate about youth development — the Chelsea owner has watched the last two finals — and as far back as 2005, when he poached Frank Arnesen from Tottenham to be director of youth development, the Russian has wanted to extend Chelsea’s success to youth level. Abramovich has poured money into the club’s academy training centre at Cobham, where the attention given to young players is remarkable.

The result is a conveyer belt of talent. Against Tottenham, Chelsea captain Mason Mount, a technically-gifted No10, was the best player on the pitch, and Ike Ugbo, who scored the second goal, was simply stronger and cleverer than his opponents.

Reece James — the only English player in the Blues’ squad not to be capped internationally at youth level — opened the scoring with a header from a corner and the visitors peppered Spurs’ goal in the second half. Spurs have goalkeeper Brandon Austin and striker Kazaiah Sterling – name-checked by Mauricio Pochettino last week – to thank that they are still in the tie. Sterling’s 87th-minute goal was barely deserved and there was still time for Chelsea to miss a penalty.

There may be little hope for Tottenham in the second leg but they feel their players still have a better chance of making it at the club. A look at Chelsea’s teamsheet in the FA Cup against Manchester United will have given the next generation a reality check.

Only Nathaniel Chalobah featured — and that was as an unused substitute — and of Chelsea’s Youth Cup-winners in the past five years, only Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek have made an impact on the first team.

The arrival of more stars this summer will only make life harder for the youngsters. If the most highly-rated members of the club’s Academy are struggling for game time, then the current FA Youth Cup side cannot expect things to be any easier for them.

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