Rise of the Academy is a Football Manager game where we imagine a world in which Roman Abramovich has grown tired of waiting for Chelsea youth players to break through. He has sacked all the players who aren’t youth academy products and put us in the hotseat to try and manage Chelsea back to glory with only home grown players.
To read the second part, click HERE.
Since Roman Abramovich arrived, Chelsea have spent a vast amount on their youth coaching, recruitment and facilities to try and develop young players for the first team.
Through local scouting and an extensive loan network, we are now seeing the first players from that policy force their way into the side under Antonio Conte. But what if Roman had taken the chance this summer to really step things up?
In this Football Manager game I terminated the contract of every senior Chelsea player that didn’t come from the youth academy in the editor, along with any young players who haven’t appeared for Chelsea’s youth system or signed after the age of 16. I will not sign any players over the age of 16, to ensure that all of my players have an education in the Chelsea system I will introduce and are eventually eligible for the English national team.
I also terminated the loans of all the players who I would now need for the first team, meaning that Lewis Baker, Tammy Abraham and Kasey Palmer, amongst others, are all now back at Cobham with the chance to play in Blue at last.
All of this means John Terry will be the only player over 23 in the squad, and also mean a lot of very inexperienced players playing a lot of minutes. This will help them develop quickly, but will also mean that the first season (at least) will be a serious struggle in the Premier League.
My biggest enemy perhaps is the board itself, who will be expecting good results despite the removal of almost the entire first team squad. Explaining to them that I am playing lots of youngsters from the academy will only save me for so long if the results aren’t going the right way. Luckily for me, they are relatively lenient in the first season, telling me to aim for the top half and the fifth round of the FA Cup. I do not raise these expectations at all, for obvious reasons.
From the very first day things were looking bad for Roman’s radical new plan. For one thing, the 20 or so first team players I have released are now signing for new clubs. While Azpi to Barcelona and Matic to Lazio I can handle, two of my stars have committed serious treachery. Within a day of his contract ending Diego Costa has moved to Arsenal, while Eden Hazard, after a few weeks choosing between offers from the world’s top teams, chose Tottenham.
This is my starting squad from assessing the players at the start of the season. There’s certainly no shortage of talent, but only Terry, Andreas Christensen and Aké are really ready for Premier League starting roles. Chalobah and Boga are close but will need time to get up to speed, while the wealth of attacking options in players Boga, Musonda and Abraham will hopefully get us enough goals while they mature and develop some consistency.
My first task is to establish a philosophy for the team. Given the technical quality of my squad and the young players coming through from the academy, I aim for a short passing 4231 which will hopefully give my youngsters the ability to control games and work chances for my tricky forwards. It also allows me to play very deep to protect Terry, my one mature player but also my most vulnerable to speed on the break.
With a philosophy in place, I can think about my starting lineup. Delac is the best I’ve got in goal – which is a worry. The back four picks itself, with necessity meaning that I will have to develop Ake as a left back rather than a midfielder. Aina is a superbly gifted right back, with wonderful physical attributes but terrible technical stats. Terry an automatic choice at CB alongside Christensen, with Tomas Kalas rotating in to gradually take over from Terry next year.
In midfield there is a wealth of playmakers, with Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek and Baker all preferring to pass rather than tackle. Baker is given the playmaker role which Chalobah is persuaded to play a little more high-energy box to box. As it stands Loftus-Cheek plays the most defensive role, although long term I would like to develop a better ball-winner with Ruben providing cover for Chalobah and Baker further forward.
My next task is to get the players onboard and tied down for the future. As I will have to develop talent entirely from players under the age of 17, I need cover for the first team immediately so even players like Todd Kane who may not be of the standard I want long term, are important to keep in the building.
Players like Dom Solanke are on the verge of leaving, but seeing the route to the first team suddenly cleared allows me to persuade him to sign a new deal. I hand out monster contracts to all of the players who will take them – the only upside of releasing half a billion in player assets was making plenty of space on the wage bill. JT, despite his rapidly declining physical stats, is also handed a one year extension purely on the basis of being the one player aged 24 or above. All this good news (and countless millions in brand new signing on bonuses in the dressing room) creates a good buzz around the club as we enter preseason…
Or so I thought…
One theme that was common to all these games was bad goalkeeping, and with the Premier League season starting in just a few days, that’s a serious worry. Matej Delac is the best keeper I’ve got, and worryingly there’s no talent coming through the academy. Given that keepers usually take till their mid twenties to peak, this is a serious worry. I can’t find myself waiting 6 years for a decent goalie to establish themselves. This is clearly a priority so I dispatch Chelsea’s scouts to the far corners to find the next Gigi Donnarumma while Delac stays behind after training every day to work on his handling… reigning Champions Leicester are the first team on the fixture list and Jamie Vardy is licking his lips thinking about John Terry’s pace stats.
Read the second part of Rise of the Academy HERE!
