Youngster turns his back on Chelsea

Its been reported that Frank Nouble is currently at West Ham undergoing a medical after turning down a professional contract at Chelsea. Its reported that the Hammers have offered him a 5-year deal to sign at Upton Park within the next 48 hours.

So reading this it again brings to the fore the question of will our youngsters ever get a chance or enough of a chance at Chelsea?. Jimmy Smith has signed for Leyton Orient on a free transfer after being loaned out more than enough times during his time at Chelsea. Ben Sahar was another one who was loaned out and has left so is the door for our youngsters slammed shut or is there still a glimmer of hope for the youngsters?.

You can argue about Sahar leaving that he wasn't really good enough with the strikeforce we have had at the club in the last 5 years. But this guy was a starter for the Israeli National team.

When Roman took over the club he invested in our youth infrastructure along with the training facilities for the first team but are we expecting too much too soon?

An argument will be that now we have established ourselves as one of the main stays in the top 4 of the English Premier League we need to maintain our squad strength and need to bring in world class players to maintain our position of challenging for honours year in year out so will they ever get enough of a chance?

The only player to of come through the clubs Academy is John Terry and you have to say at this stage there is only the likes of Michael Mancienne that looks anywhere near doing the same.

We need to focus on our Youth development as it will be so important in years to come if UEFA have their way with the ruling involving English players and restrictions on overseas players. You never know one day at Chelsea we may be in a position to do an Alex Ferguson where he sold off first teamers and brought the likes of Beckham, Neville, Butt, Scholes and Giggs to the fore and look what happened with them!

But at the end of the day its a difficult one for the manager and for the club. If the manager doesn't maintain the level of performance expected from the owner, boardroom and fans then they lose their job so it's going to have to be something special to take the plunge with the youngsters! Just hope that these players don't come back and bit us on the bum in the future!

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