Antonio Conte has been sharply criticised for failing to give youth a chance at Chelsea since the summer. Just last night former Manchester United defender Phil Neville laid into the Italian.

The last transfer window saw many academy graduates move on or loaned out which played into the notion that young players never get a chance at Stamford Bridge.

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Nathan Ake and Nathaniel Chalobah were sold, Dominic Solanke chose to leave for Liverpool and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tammy Abraham were loaned to fellow Premier League sides.

‘If you were the Under-23s manager, or part of the squad that played in the Champions League Youth League today, you’d be thinking: “I’ve got no future at this football club”,’ said Neville. ‘It’s a disgrace, they should close their academy.’


Chelsea departures during the summer Diego Costa – Atletico Madrid – £59.4m

Nemanja Matic – Man Utd – £40.23m

Nathan Aké – Bournemouth – £20.52m

Juan Cuadrado – Juventus – £18.00m

Asmir Begovic – Bournemouth – £10.35m

Bertrand Traoré – Olympique Lyon – £9.00m

Kurt Zouma – Stoke City – Loan

Christian Atsu – Newcastle – £6.75m

Nathaniel Chalobah – Watford – £5.67m

John Terry – Aston Villa – Free transfer

Loïc Rémy – Las Palmas – Free transfer

Danilo Pantic – Partizan – Loan

Todd Kane – FC Groningen – Loan

Ruben Loftus-Cheek – Crystal Palace – Loan

Nathan – SC Amiens – Loan

Cristian Cuevas – FC Twente – Loan

Jeremie Boga – Birmingham – Loan

Kenneth Omeruo – Kasimpasa – Loan

Lewis Baker – Middlesbrough – Loan

Mario Pasalic – Spartak Moscow – Loan

Matt Miazga – Vitesse – Loan

Tammy Abraham – Swansea – Loan

Michael Hector – Hull City – Loan

Tomás Kalas – Fulham – Loan

Ola Aina – Hull City – Loan

Jamal Blackman – Sheffield Utd – Loan

The sense that young players don’t get a chance has existed ever since the Roman Abramovich era began, with John Terry famously the only player to emerge from the academy who became a regular fixture in the side. The wait for the next has been so long that in that time Terry has managed to win every trophy going, become arguably the most iconic player in the club’s history and start afresh as Aston Villa.

John Terry came through the Chelsea academy (Getty)

But while the criticism of Conte has been audible – even one of his own players recently felt aggrieved enough for an ill-advised vent on social media – it is totally unfair.



Conte himself was moved to defend his record earlier this season.

‘Show me young players who deserve to play regularly for Chelsea and I’m ready to pick them,’ said the Italian. ‘Don’t forget my first game in Serie A, I was only 16. I’m the first person open to do this because another coach did this with me. But, I repeat, you must have the possibilities to do this. Not to invent them.

‘I put Paul Pogba at 18 into the Juventus team, for Claudio Marchisio. But you must have players who are ready to play regularly with Chelsea, a great team. Otherwise, it’s very difficult to make this decision. You must decide if you want to fight for the title or develop your young players. Two different ways.’

Pogba and Conte together at Juventus (Getty)

There are two arguments with which Conte can and should be defended over his record of utilising young players at Chelsea.

The first is that Chelsea are among a select group of elite clubs for which failure is not an option, a defeat is a disaster and winning is more important than anything.

This can only be said for a handful of clubs – the others in the bracket are Manchester United, Man City, Juventus, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and to a lesser extent Paris St Germain.

Chelsea have suffered back-to-back defeats in the Premier League for the first time in over a year and it’s causing panic around the club and seeing questions asked. Many more bad results and there is no doubt Conte will be sacked. Just ask Claudio Ranieri, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, Roberto Di Matteo and Jose Mourinho (twice) who felt the cold knife of Abramovich in their back.

Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich is notoriously tough to please (Getty)

That environment does not allow for experiments and charitable opportunities to be afforded to a club’s academy products. As Conte himself has said, they must be earned.

‘The first thing they should have is good patience. Trust the club. Then work very hard to know that to play at this level you must be stronger – and very good.

‘Sometimes, young players think they can play easily in the first team, but that’s not true. I have to pick 11 players. Not only me, every coach.’

Conte took charge at Chelsea in the summer of 2016 (Getty)

A look at Chelsea’s fellow elite European clubs reveals that their respective managers have a similar outlook to Conte.

At Manchester City and Bayern Munich, not a single player who is currently under the age of 23 and was in the clubs’ academy before the age of 18 has played for the senior team in the league since Conte took charge of Chelsea last summer.



At Juventus, the champions of Italy, just one player under those same parameters has been given a start. At Barcelona, academy graduates were afforded just two minutes of football in La Liga last season. At Real Madrid that total was 60 minutes. Real Madrid’s uneasiness in taking their youth team players through to the senior side has ironically been to Chelsea’s advantage. Alvaro Morata, now 24, was deemed dispensable by the Spanish giants but since coming to Stamford Bridge has proven he has the talent.

Alvaro Morata, now at Chelsea, struggled to force his way into Real Madrid’s side (Getty)

It seems success and giving opportunities does not go hand-in-hand. As Conte said, there are ‘two different ways’.

The exceptions among the elite teams are Manchester United and PSG.

Since the start of last season Jose Mourinho has given seven youth products a shot at Premier League football. In total they have played 2880 minutes of football to now. At PSG that figure is even better with 5755 minutes for players who came through their youth system. Adrien Rabiot and Presnel Kimpembe in particular have become key members of the side.

Manchester United players currently under the age of 23 given a chance by Mourinho Last season * Angel Gomes (17 years old) 0 starts (1 sub appearance) 2 mins total

* Tim Fosu-Mensah (19 years old) 1 (3) 96 mins

* Marcus Rashford (19 years olds) 16 (16) 1703 mins

* Scott McTominay (20 years old)1 (1) 96 mins

* Axel Tuanzebe (19 years old) 4 (0) 305 mins

* Joel Pereira (21 years old) 1 (0) 90 mins

Luke Shaw (22 years old) 9 (2) 692 mins

Anthony Martial (21 years old) 18 (7) 1558 mins

* Josh Harrop (21 years old) 1 (0) 90 mins This season Anthony Martial (21 years old) 2 (5) 205 mins

* Marcus Rashford (19 years old) 6 (2) 498 mins * Denotes those who were in the Manchester United academy before the age of 18 All stats Premier League only

But it is notable it is those two sides that stand out because both considerably under-performed in their respective leagues last season. Manchester United finished a hugely disappointing fifth while PSG failed to win the title for the first time in five years. In comparison Chelsea, Juventus, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid were champions.

Jose Mourinho turned to youth a lot last season (Getty)

The second argument in defence of Conte is that he has championed youth at Chelsea, at least relative to the Blues’ fellow elite clubs.


Since taking over in the summer of 2016 he’s given six players from the youth academy minutes in the Premier League. Ake, Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek and Ola Aina all played last season while Charly Musonda and Andreas Christensen have featured this term.

Chelsea players currently under the age of 23 given a chance by Conte Last season * Nathan Ake (22 years old) – 1 start (1 sub appearance) 98 mins total

Kurt Zouma (22 years old) – 3 (6) 247 mins

Kenedy (21 years old) – 1 (0) 75 mins

* Nathaniel Chalobah (22 years old) – 1 (9) 159 mins

* Ruben Loftus-Cheek (21 years old) 0 (6) 31 mins

* Ola Aina (21 years old) 0 (3) 25 mins This season * Andreas Christensen (21 years old) 3 (3) 344 mins

* Charly Musonda (21 years old) 0 (2) 26 mins *Denotes those who were in the Chelsea academy before the age of 18 All stats Premier League only

In that time Manchester United have used one more, but among that group at Manchester United is 19-year-old prodigy Marcus Rashford. He is clearly a rare talent and one that would be gracing any side lucky enough to have him. But even he is regularly playing out of position under Mourinho.

If the young English striker’s minutes are not included, then Manchester United have used academy players for 679 minutes since the start of last season. The comparative figure at Chelsea is 683.

Marcus Rashford is a rare talent (Getty)

Over at Manchester City there is no doubt Pep Guardiola is willing to give young players a chance. Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane and Gabriel Jesus – aged 22, 21 and 20 respectively – are all key members of his squad. But all of them shone elsewhere and were then signed for huge money by the Premier League table-toppers.

Conte himself has pointed this out.

He said: ‘If young players stay and play regularly with Chelsea, the question is this: Manchester City and other clubs, are their players from the academy playing regularly? I don’t know.’

Antonio Conte at Stamford Bridge (Getty)

Manchester City and other clubs, are their players from the academy playing regularly?

Aina, who made three substitute appearances in the Premier League last season, offered an insight recently that showed Conte’s openness to youth.

‘The hard work of the academy is still going on and so to have a manager who lets the young ones have a run-out here and there is good for the academy and the young players who are getting chosen.


‘He treats us like any of the other players in the team. We do feel part of the first-team; we don’t feel like the young ones anymore.’

His comments are somewhat in contrast to some others. Musonda went on that recent Instagram rant while Chalobah has said he has no regrets about leaving. The Chelsea academy project left for Watford over the summer and if it weren’t for injury would be taking on his former side this weekend.

While on England duty he said: ‘I guess the fact I’m sitting here justifies the decision, that was the aim really, to leave and try and get game time somewhere else, and I am just very pleased and happy that things are going well.’

Nathaniel Chalobah at Watford (Getty)

Chalobah made his decision and few will dispute he will get more chances at Watford than he would at Chelsea. But that is not Conte’s fault, but simply a side effect of the Blues being among Europe’s elite.

‘Chalobah had the chance to play,’ Conte said of his former midfielder. ‘Don’t forget last season we won the league. Don’t forget last season our midfielders were Matic, Kante and Fabregas. Chalobah was the fourth midfielder.

’If you ask to play regularly with a great club, then you must deserve to play. If you show you deserve to play and can be better than these players, I’m ready to do this.’

Ironically, Chalobah is likely to witness Conte’s willingness to turn to youth this weekend. Due to a spate of injuries, something which hardly affected Chelsea last season, academy product Christensen could well be in the starting XI and add to the six appearances he’s already made this season.

Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen has already made six Premier League appearances this season (Getty)

‘We have a clear example with Christensen. Christensen played on loan at Borussia Moenchengladbach and now he’s in our squad,’ said Conte who then perfectly encapsulated his view on youth…

‘Don’t forget that my first appearance in Serie A was when I was 16. I think I’m the first person to trust in the young players, to give possibilities to them, if young players deserve this chance.’

Conte has proven he holds to those principles and Neville’s suggestion that young players have no chance at Chelsea is plain wrong. They just have to be good enough.

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