Chelsea’s head of youth development gives praise to Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel

At Chelsea over recent years it has not always been the norm to see youth players coming through the ranks into the first team.

In fact, before the likes of Mason Mount and Andreas Christensen if you like, John Terry had been the only successful graduate we had really see become a mainstay in the senior team.

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It was something that most of the fans wanted to see a lot more of and the club, who invest a lot of time and money in the academy, were also looking to balance this and see more products from our academy thrive into the first team.

Neil Bath, who is the head of youth development at Chelsea, has been a pioneer for the academy and a great person spearheading the rise of a number of our top quality youngsters, has been giving praise to Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel for bringing youth players through and taking the chance on them.

“I will always give credit and be grateful to Frank Lampard for showing tremendous bravery in trusting some of our young players at such a difficult time,” Bath said via the Chelsea website.

“The likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Reece James and Fikayo Tomori were all given opportunities, which they had earned and then took.

“Thomas Tuchel then came in and continued the progression of these young lads, allowing them to become established squad members and regulars in the team. He has talked a lot about the importance of the Academy at the club and has backed up those words with actions.

“During the transition from Frank to Thomas, it was purely merit that kept a number of the Academy players in the squad. Thomas picks the strongest line-up in his eyes, and we still have five Academy players on the pitch or in the squad at any given time, which is a tremendous achievement.

“Of course, some players will move on and that’s just football but this generates income for the club to then invest back into the club. We can only be proud that we are continually developing players deemed good enough to play for our men’s first team and elsewhere around Europe.

“In the next five to 10 years, a clear set of unique objectives will be set per year from a football and education perspective; essentially a performance plan which seeks to ensure we do not rest on our laurels and propels us ahead of the field once again.”

Chelsea News