Keeping the bench warm- The Chelsea Reserve and Youth Thread

First leg in a little bit more than an hour.

Chelsea should start as clear favourites but upsets are way more common at the U-18 level so United cannot be ruled out. Both teams play good, technical football so should be a good game.

 

heh Chelsea ain't clear favorite tbf, it's a balanced tie I would say. U18s have actually surpassed expectation if we consider early season form, never thought they could topple teams like West Ham or Forest, which is a testament to this group, they stuck together & got results in their favor.

 

Same for us. Bar Blackett and van Velzen, the rest of the team is all first-team scholars and schoolboys and next season was supposed to be their season. Add to that a bunch of injuries and we have certainly surpassed expectations.

The reason I consider Chelsea clear favourites is our defense with the likes of Iannou just schoolboys and Chalaboah & co will dominate them imo.

 

aye; your lot just about deserved it for completely dominating the first 15-20 minutes after which the game was very even (would say United probably edged it in passages of play if not in chances).

Hopefully, a couple of our injured starters can return for the second leg to ensure another exciting game.

 

Anyone catch the ITV4 coverage? You'd think we were bloody Stoke the way they were going about the 'size difference' between both teams.

 

Very much ill-informed poor coverage from ITV, even wrong about no of first & second years.

Glad that what matters, the team has done a good showing & result. Loftus cheek indicated he might be back for the second leg. That would be good

 

It looks like Kakuta is doing well. 5 goals in 9 appearance for Dijon. Scored against Marseille recently.

We should at least give him a chance this summer. It's be a shame to let him go.

 

He signed a big money new contract last summer.

 

what an weird choice of date for the FAYC second leg, Friday 13th April. Could be switched to 16th if we progress in CL

 

Yes I know. I meant sell him as we have other youth players.

 

im struggling to remember when we've sold a player a year after signing a new contract under Roman

 

Just saw some highlights of this game, Islam Ferouz seems to be making waves at the youth level!

Is he a Kakuta or a Rooney?

 

Feruz is a pure center forward, & relating with either is inappropriate at this stage. But safe to say he's not like Kakuta at all.

 

Mellis has been kicked out and Clifford fined over the smoke bomb thing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2117482/Chelsea-sack-Jacob-Mellis-smoke-bomb-prank.html

 

What's Lukaku doing, does it seem like he will ever be worth the 20 million spend for him? How far away is he from playing for the first team?

 

Feruz doesn't need to bulk up, his proportions are fine. He's just short, he needs to grow.

 

Well yeah, but realistically he's not gonna get any taller than 5'8" at the very most optimistic so any additional bulking will be too much for that frame. He can get his strength from core work as the majority of players his size do.

Hard to know his exact height and weight atm as it's not listed but you can take an educated guess from others around him that he's probably 163cm and about 60/61kg. Add another 7cm and 7kg tops (proportionally this is fine) and you've got Messi's build, which is sort of what I'd expect. Those gains are definitely possible in a short space of time as well, just look at Affane from year one to year two.

 

one of his mates said before that Feruz has actually improved his physique since joining the academy & had hit a growth sprout. Think he's very young, so a little more bulk up would definitely occur. Kaby looked fat this year(to me anyway) & I think feruz would do better than Kaby

 

http://www.chelseafc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10268~2686017,00.html

great to see Phillip getting back into the side