Chelsea’s 2019/20 season was defined by the number of youth academy products manager Frank Lampard unleashed in the first-team.
Although it was perhaps through necessity rather than choice, following the club’s transfer ban, such names as Reece James, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham all established themselves at Stamford Bridge.
Skim through the gargantuan list of Chelsea players on loan at clubs around the world, and there will be plenty of names who have come through their youth system.
This summer, however, Chelsea have invested heavily over the summer, splashing out more than £200million on Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell and Edouard Mendy, while also bringing in free agents Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr.
It is only recently that Chelsea have realised that it can be beneficial to give youngsters a chance in the first-team set-up.
There will be dozens more teenagers at Stamford Bridge hoping to find their pathway and emulate the likes of James, Mount and Abraham, as well as Fiyako Tomori and Billy Gilmour, who also graduated from the academy to the first team.
One such name is attacker Charlie Webster, who The Guardian has named as one of its best 20 talents at Premier League clubs.
The outlet picked the best young players at each club born between September 1, 2003 and August 31, 2004, an age band known as first-year scholars.
And Webster – an attacking midfielder or forward – is the pick for Chelsea.
The 16-year-old first came to attention at the Kevin de Bruyne Cup, an international under-15s competition held annually in Belgium, where he was voted its player of the tournament, and played an instrumental part when Chelsea beat Belgian side Genk on penalties.
The Hampshire-raised midfielder, who joined Chelsea’s academy as an under-10, started his career at the Pezzaz Soccer School, in Wiltshire.
According to The Sun, Borussia Dortmund are interested in taking him to Germany, but Chelsea are hopeful of tying him down to a professional contract when he turns 17 in January.
Blues supporters should not be too worried about his future, though, as he said last year : “I want to play for this club, this brilliant club.
“We all enjoy it and love it.”
He has already appeared for Chelsea’s Under-18s team, making his debut against Southampton, and captained England’s Under-17s in a match against the Republic of Ireland, where he scored his first goal at international level.
Webster, born five months before Jose Mourinho’s appointment as manager at Chelsea in the summer of 2004, has a bright future ahead of him at Stamford Bridge – and could be set to continue the recently-well trodden path to Chelsea’s first team.
