A lot of focus currently sits on the men's team out in LA. With Raheem Sterling joining up with his new teammates following Wednesday's announcement and Kalidou Koulibaly set to follow, Thomas Tuchel and fans' are focusing on improvement ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
But they are not the only Chelsea team gearing up for a big season. The club's esteemed academy has been out in Portugal and Spain so far this summer with a trip to America soon. The next batch of hopefuls aiming to replicate the success of Mason Mount and Reece James.
With Todd Boehly pledging in his opening statement as co-owner back in June to "developing the youth squad", the hope for more Cobham influence in the first team remains a major hope in coming years.
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On Friday night, there is a friendly for the development squad at Boreham Wood, where first-teamers N'Golo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Dujon Sterling could all be involved in action.
For this piece, to get a deeper insight on the upcoming season for the academy, I spoke to Paree (@CFCParee), who is the owner of Blues site The Chelsea Spot, writing articles and hosting regular podcasts. I spoke with Paree about the next year, how the recent takeover will impact the academy and who fans should be looking at across the next nine months.
DC: How did you view the 2021/22 season from an academy perspective? Good, bad, important?
The 2021/22 academy season was one of the most difficult in recent times, yet it still feels like we made incredible progress, as we tend to do every year. I don't want to sound like a know-it-all, and especially when it comes to academy football, it can be so hard to predict, but in my season preview, I constantly emphasised how tough last season was going to be.
We had lost some of the biggest talents in Premier League 2 football, such as Tino Livramento, Lewis Bate and Myles Peart-Harris, and extremely useful players at that level such as Marcel Lewis, Thierno Ballo and Dynel Simeu departed too. It meant we were left with one of the youngest U23 squads seen and an abundance of inexperience.
On top of that, the players who had featured regularly, such as Sam McClelland and Ben Elliott, found themselves injured for most of the season, meaning it was always going to be a massive test for Andy Myers and his staff.
If you somehow don't know the story by now, Chelsea needed to win on the final day of the season against massive academy rivals Spurs to avoid relegation. We went 1-0 down despite the help of Malang Sarr & Trevoh Chalobah and the support of Tuchel, but miraculously in the last 10 minutes of the game turned it around to 2-1 to clinch survival. It certainly marked one of the most important goals in Chelsea history. Who knows what would have happened if we went down to the next division.
It certainly wasn't all doom and gloom either. The U18s managed to win the Premier League Cup at Craven Cottage against rivals Fulham thanks to an incredible Leo Castledine goal and a winner from Jude Soonsup-Bell after magnificent individual work from Charlie Webster.
Charlie stood out in the FA Youth Cup in every single game and really dragged us through tough moments, while Harvey Vale's brilliance for the U23s provided us with valuable points leading him to win Academy Player of the Season. Harvey started alongside Xavier Simons and Soonsup-Bell against Brentford, who all made their debuts, while 17-year-old Lewis Hall played out of position at left centre-back against Chesterfield in the FA Cup and managed to pick up an assist to top off a great debut too.
A brilliant season? Definitely not. A lot to learn, though, for Neil Bath and the players, and that's what academy football is about. Learning, patience and opportunities. Survived relegation, winning a trophy and a couple of first-team debuts. Not bad.
DC: Does the new ownership give greater hope that Neil Bath's vision 2030 can be fully realised with Todd Boehly's commitment to developing young talent?
I really, really hope so.
Last season, when it was clear that Livramento, Bate and Peart-Harris weren't going to sign new contracts, they were forced to train with the U16s as a punishment. Yes, I know it sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what happened. Rather than trying to convince them to sign the new deal by letting them train with the first team, where I'm sure they would have thrived, the club decided to throw their toys out of the pram and deal with it in a different manner.
Now, looking at our current pre-season squad, we saw Charlie Webster and Lewis Hall train in Cobham with the first team, and Harvey Vale is with the first team in LA, despite only having one year left on his deal like some of the boys this time last year. I really do think this will make a massive difference in negotiations with Harvey over a new contract, especially with the Raphinha deal collapsing and five subs being used next season in the Premier League.
It's never just down to one party, though. Yes, Boehly may want to use the academy more, but the likes of Tuchel, Neil Bath and most importantly, the players themselves have very important decisions to make. It's the club's duty and utmost significance while we have one of the best academies in the world to make it an attractive system for parents to send their children to, for players to develop and fulfil their potential, as well as provide that important pathway to the first team.
DC: Who are the players supporters should be looking out for this year?
This upcoming season is going to be really exciting for quite a few reasons. Firstly, a new manager. Mark Robinson did some incredible work with the AFC Wimbledon academy, and his time with the first team should not be looked down upon either. I can’t wait to see what he’s able to do with some of the best players the country has in their respective age groups.
Arguably, most of you have read this article to find out which players to look out for next season. As always, with academy football, this can be ever so hard to foreshadow, and there are always a couple which will go wrong, or I won’t mention, but I’ll give it a shot anyway:
Bashir Humphreys. He will definitely want to cement his place in the starting line-up. He’s one of the most two-footed players Cobham have ever produced, alongside the likes of Marc Guehi and Lewis Baker. He featured quite often in important games last season. He played for the England U19s in their Euros victory this Summer, so he’ll be wanting to kick on from that and really impress the new manager.
Dylan Williams. Dylan was a player we signed in January with desperate help needed on the left-hand side, and so far, he’s been outstanding. He made his debut just a couple of days after he signed in a very important game against Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup, where he did struggle (as anyone would expect), but since then, he’s been such an important player. It’s an easy comparison to make being a left-footed wing-back, but he does really remind me of Ben Chilwell in the sense that he keeps things simple and understands the game really well. It’s a long shot, but I wouldn’t be totally against him joining the first team squad halfway through the 2022/23 season.
Lewis Hall. This boy was perhaps the busiest kid in the footballing world last season. Being a first-year scholar, his development was outrageous. He played for the U18s, U19s, U21s, U23s and the first team at the age of 16-17. That is not normal. Not only that, he played in so many positions despite predominantly being a midfielder and never complained once. Seeing him progress was amazing as I was cautious about him being chucked into the deep end so many times at such a young age, but he fought those battles with such ease and had a genuine shout for Academy player of the season. I can’t wait to see what a full PL2 season in midfield will do for him.
Mason Burstow. The new signing from Charlton Athletic will want to show Cobham what he can do. Performing surprisingly well for a striker of his age in League One attracted interest from many clubs, and Chelsea picked him up, intending to coach him at the highest level in the development squad for one season. If you’re impressing in League One at the tender age of 18, I’m sure he’s got something about him, and he’s one who I’ve never watched play before, so there’s a lot of excitement to see what he will bring to the table. It’ll also push the likes of Jay Wareham and Soonsup-Bell (if he stays), which is the healthy competition every forward needs.
Leo Castledine. Leo’s one who probably won’t feature for the U21s until the latter stages, but it is a name people are slowly starting to hear about. He has been playing for our U18s since the age of 15 and has got the style of play which Chelsea fans will love. He racks up many goals and assists, is technically brilliant and most importantly, works like crazy off the ball. Ed Brand’s complement of him after the final against Fulham reminds me of the way Frank Lampard used to speak about Mason Mount, so although Leo’s got a lot of work to do to reach anywhere near Mason’s level, the sky is genuinely the limit.
I honestly could go on and on. There are so many players I could talk about who I think could impress, such as Brodi Hughes, Ben Elliott or Joe Haigh, and I haven’t even talked about who I want to see starting for the U18s regularly. Such as Tudor Mendel-Idowu and Malik Mothersille! There are still so many more, so I better stop, but I really hope you’re looking forward to next season as much as I am.
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