Chelsea are looking to sign top young players from both Tottenham and Arsenal in order to make progress towards their Vision 2030 plan. After the news that a deal was close for Molde forward David Datro Fofana it was disclosed that the 19-year-old was part of the long-term goals for the club.
Although not spoken about often, Vision 2030 has been in the pipeline since 2019 and Frank Lampard's reign but wasn't unveiled until 2021. With the new owners taking charge one year later it is now back in the focus due to such a large ploy to sign youth players.
Alongside developing and using more players from Cobham, the club are attempting to bring in other available players from elsewhere too, adding to Carney Chukwuemeka, Cesare Casadei and Omari Hutchinson from the summer.
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The project is being led by academy director Neil Bath, who has also been given even greater responsibility in the new recruitment set-up at Stamford Bridge, and has the aims of having 15% of their Premier League minutes to be from academy players; 25% of their first-team squad to be from the academy; to have above national average GCSE and A Level results; to have more academy players in the professional game than from any other academy; to win more national and international competitions than other academies.
In order to complete the aim by 2030 Chelsea are now looking at some of the best young players across the country to join their set-up, and Arsenal's Ethan Nwaneri is one of them. According to transfer expert Rob Pratley, the youngest-ever Premier League player isn't alone though, with Tottenham's Mikey Moore and Sunderland midfielder Chris Rigg also on their radar.
Nwaneri made his debut earlier this season for Mikel Arteta's men but hasn't featured since. He is still a major prodigy though and has played up aged groups for England already.
Moore is also a youth Three Lions international, playing for the Under-16s already as a 15-year-old. He has two goals and four assists in seven matches in the Under-18 Premier League.
Rigg is also 15 and made his Under-18 debut last season. He has two assists in three matches.
It was only earlier this year that Southampton star Tyler Dibling moved to Cobham only to go back to St Mary's shortly after. Boehly has spent big for first-team players already but has continued to express extreme interest and seriousness in pushing on the academy too.
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