Marcus Rashford rightfully grabbed the headlines as England’s young lions destroyed Norway. His demotion from the senior squad saw him blast a hat-trick that will keep the focus on why he has only had 19 minutes of senior football so far this season for United.
However hidden by this headline is the contribution from Chelsea’s academy normally Chelsea’s youth team is more of a gamble than if you play free slot machines at Royal Vegas casino. But for England’s youth team’s they really come up trumps.
Chelsea had three players in the starting XI for the game played in Colchester. The trio were Lewis Baker, Nathaniel Chalobah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The stand out was Loftus-Cheek, who showed the influence he can have.
The stand out was Loftus-Cheek, who showed the influence he can have on a game when given the freedom to express himself. Around the 65 minute mark he took a royal vegas casino style gamble from the edge of the area to score a well-deserved goal.
Chalobah who now has more than 80 England youth caps and Baker were also on the scoresheet but with the game over the focus will be on if they will ever make it to the national squad.
Joining the Chelsea academy is a bit like playing royal vegas online casino and hoping for the best, there are no guarantees of success. Hopefully this English trio can buck the trend.
Much of this will rest on whether they break into the Chelsea first team or are forced to move away on loan or permanently to get the game time they will need to develop.
Lack of First Team Experience
Playing youth internationals is great but despite having made their senior debuts it is unlikely that any of these players will make more than 10 league appearances for the Blues between them.
This is a reflection of the strength of the Chelsea squad, but also how hard it is to break into the team. The pressure on a Chelsea manager for instant results is so huge that Conte will not have the chance to bring them into the team for a run of games regardless of performances.
So whilst it is great that three Chelsea players score for England it is sad that it highlights the challenge of developing youth players and meeting performance expectations.
We do however live in eternal hope that John Terry will not be the last academy player to play for England whilst still on Chelsea’s books.
