Of the English clubs only Chelsea have ever really been successful in the UYL. In terms of trophies and finals they're the second most successful team in it's history, although they last appeared in a final in 2019. This season they're definitely one of the strongest sides again. Looking at their academy it could be another golden generation for Chelsea and England again.
Calum McFarlane seems like one of our better up-and-coming coaches too. He's been a monumental upgrade on that Portuguese bloke they had last season who played the most sterile brand of football I've seen a major academy play at that level. I personally still don't love the style of football Chelsea play now under McFarlane but he's under instruction to play that way regardless. He was very highly thought of at Southampton and did a really good job there.
I don't think that's true, I know of friends boys who have been to school with Dowman and Porter in Chelmsford and Harlow respectively, and played cricket for Essex with Porter who certainly isn't London. One of my mates teaches in a private school in Ipswich and has one of their highest rated players in his U12s(?). Is so highly rated that Arsenal came to interview the school before allowing him to go there....
🚨⚠️ Amorim: “Toby Collyer is not playing at West Brom. Harry Amass is struggling in Championship. Chido is not always starter in the U21s”.“I played them when people said: sack the manager. You can see I’m not worried. I want to win. If he's the right guy, I will put him in”. pic.twitter.com/oY2ag21Rnq— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) December 15, 2025 I thought Amass was doing just fine in the Championship or? According to Amorim he’s struggling…..
Amass was voted Sheffield Wednesday's 'Player of the Month' for November - so either they're misguided, or Amorim is proving once again he really doesn't have a grip on things.
Yeah it seems a bit odd why he would say that about Amass when he was their player of the month and there has been a lot of positive posts about him. I bet he is feeling great after reading his manager says he’s struggling when he gets these accolades…..
Hopefully amass can get out of there when returns from the loan. The manager is clueless, everybody knows it.
What baffles me about the Amorim situation is that, at least online, there's a sizeable portion of the Man Utd fanbase who are always quick to defend him when he's talking utter crap about United's academy boys. Complete disregard for the club's culture.
It's pretty obvious that he means Amass's team are struggling in The Championship, although Amass is having a great season within that context. None of those three should be starting for United right now though. Collyer will never be good enough and Chido has been quite overrated due to his u18 performances where he had a big physical advantage. Amass has a chance of playing for United and England one day but he's not ready yet. Still weird comments from Amorin though, he comes across as thin skinned to the citicism. United has one of the biggest fan bases in the world so you'll get a massive range of opinions, I think in England at least most United fans would be glad to see the back of Amorin.
It's weird for a manager to call academy players out like that by name anyway even if they are struggling. Just say that you don't currently think the academy players are ready for the first team like a normal human being would.
I'll give him the benefit and assume he meant that Sheffield Wednesday were struggling, rather than Amass, but honestly even that is a strange thing to point out because with these lower league loans its almost always about the individual and how they can adapt in both good and bad times, sometimes a little struggle and adjustment is a good thing.
Yeah you could be right and it’s maybe due to English not being his native language but the way I read the post was that he talked about Collyer and Chido on a personal level so presume he also meant the same with Amass but yeah could be wrong on that.
Yeah, he’s had a really unfortunate season. Makes Amorim’s comments even worse. Seems like he’s (Amorim) being goaded now by the press but it is still no excuse to dig out youth options.
proof is in the pudding with Amorim. you get the feeling academy players get put on the bench for the sake of that youth team record. not to actually kick a ball.
Man United will never allow that record to end. With how many slots there are on the bench these days it's not much of a sacrifice to ring fence one for an academy mascot.
In the current Championship campaign, a total of 129 players aged 21 and under have featured. Notably, 89 homegrown players in this age group account for 40,501 minutes played.https://t.co/dlnx2KRFGo— Youth Academies (@youthacademies) December 21, 2025 The Championship doing very well for our youth players it seems
I don’t really keep up with the championship in that much depth but is this an improvement on last year or roughly on par?
Im honestly not sure plus I'm also not sure how many English qualified players we have but considering 89 are homegrown, im gonna guess at least 75% are probably English qualified. It seems pretty decent numbers on the face of it but I’ve nothing to compare it to but maybe someone will find that information who know where to look.
Manchester United are set to appoint Newcastle's head of youth recruitment Paul Midgley to the same role at Old Trafford - Daily Mail.
Amass has been doing brilliantly. Most skillful player in the division and his value has increased ten fold. Any club in the country would want him and this chap says he's struggling? Only chap struggling is Amorim.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cr4kx9l7zd5o Emery now openly acknowledging Elliott isn't playing because the club don't want to activate the buy obligation which is linked to number of appearances. A comical situation.
Hopefully Emery saying the quiet part out loud help force all parties to try negotiate a way forward. Removing the 10 game buy obligation would hopefully get Elliott some minutes in the second half of the season.
ℹ️ FC Volendam heeft de huurovereenkomst van Kiano Dyer beëindigd. De middenvelder keert per direct terug naar Chelsea FC.🗣️ "Omdat Kiano onvoldoende speeltijd krijgt hebben we in overleg met Chelsea FC en Kiano besloten om de samenwerking te stoppen."#WêiBinneVòlledam pic.twitter.com/MvYtDpALjC— FC Volendam 🔶 (@fcvolendam) January 4, 2026 Dyer has his loan terminated and returned to Chelsea due to a lack of playing time.