Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Izzy Brown often train with the first team and were on the bench for draw with Manchester City

Jose Mourinho is beginning to take more of an interest in the academy

Gone are the days of spending large sums on young foreign imports

During Chelsea’s blistering start to their Under 21 clash with Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Monday evening, one of the club's coaches began tweeting some interesting statistics.

The academy kids were 5-0 up in 35 minutes against the Premier League leaders, with the ‘lads on flames’ as goals from Kasey Palmer, Izzy Brown, Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham put Saints away.

The next message from Jody Morris carried far greater significance, highlighting the 11 English players selected by Under 21 coach Adrian Viveash and driving home the point that 10 had been scouted locally. Ten are also internationals.

Izzy Brown (left) scored as the Stamford Bridge youngsters enjoyed a Blues cruise against Southampton

Kasey Palmer also impressed as Chelsea Under 21s ran out easy winners against their Saints counterparts

Isaiah Brown is mobbed by his Chelsea team-mates after scoring against Southampton

Dion Conroy (born in Redhill), Fankaty Dabo (Southwark), Jake Clarke-Salter (Carshalton), captain Jordan Houghton (Chertsey), Palmer (Lewisham) and Abraham (Camberwell) were all born within 20 miles of Chelsea’s Cobham training centre.

Charlie Colkett (Newham), Jay DaSilva (Luton) and Solanke (Reading) were born within 50 miles of Cobham and certainly a lot closer to the stadium at Stamford Bridge.

Goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney (born in Leeds) and Brown (Peterborough) were the two players starting against Southampton who were born outside of the Cobham catchment area.

Morris is one of their own, a former Chelsea player who has returned to the club as part of academy director Neil Bath’s strategy to have 33 per cent of the coaching staff with an affinity to the club.

After the wild excesses of former sporting director Frank Arnesen, who once spent £5million recruiting Franco Di Santo from Chilean club Audax, Chelsea have made a commitment to nurture local talent again.

Tammy Abraham (right) in action against the Southampton Under 21s, comes from Camberwell

Jordan Houghton comes from Chertsey in Surrey - again, not a million miles away from Cobham

This is not quite a return to the days of Morris cleaning the boots of the captain Dennis Wise at Chelsea’s old training ground in Sipson Lane, Harlington, but it is certainly a start.

Most would agree that overseas players have enhanced the Barclays Premier League in the past two decades, but no-one can pretend that a similar strategy has been a rip-roaring success at Chelsea’s academy.

There has been some progress of late and Jose Mourinho is taking more of an interest in the academy than ever before.

Andreas Christensen, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Brown, who were all on the substitutes’ bench for the 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Saturday, train with the first team most days.

Things have changed a bit since John Terry’s first session with the senior side, when he smashed right-back Dan Petrescu in front of the other players, but they are learning to be professional in a different way.

Jay DaSilva hails from Luton and is part of the impressive Chelsea set up just below the first team

Around the time when Terry, Morris, Jon Harley, Frank Sinclair and former Lilleshall prospect Clinton Ellis were coming through the ranks, they only had eight or nine players in each age category.

To make up the numbers for the games Graham Rix, who was the youth team coach at the time, often had to pull in some of the best local players in west London to represent the club.

There were times when Terry or Morris would be dragged in to play in the same team as a senior player for a practice match and then have to clean his boots after the game.

They would pick up tips from the senior players, mining Wise or others in that Chelsea dressing room for information as they made their way through the ranks.

Adrian Viveash (left) steered his homegrown talent to their convincing victory over Southampton

Some of that is missing in the modern world, now that Chelsea’s academy building and pitches are separated from the main area reserved exclusively for the business of the first team.

There is a nod in the direction to the past, with young academy players being given specific tasks, such as cleaning dressing rooms, balls or bibs on a three-month cycle.

Beyond those menial tasks is a professional set up, an environment that has been designed to encourage young players to flourish.

They need little reminding that the last first-team player to successfully come through the Chelsea academy to become a first team regular remains the current captain.

When Terry was a young player he was remembered because he always walked out on to the training ground at Harlington in a short sleeved shirt, whatever the weather was doing. Those days are gone.

Chelsea's U18 coach Jody Morris and Joe Edwards (right) take a training session at Cobham

Jon Harley (left), Dennis Wise (centre) and John Terry pictured in 2001 to launch Chelsea's Umbro kit

A young Terry training at Chelsea's old ground in Sipson before he went on to captain the club

Terry and Morris in Premier League action for Chelsea against Sunderland in 2003

In the modern era Chelsea’s young players go to school on site, reporting to the training ground at 9am before heading out to train at 10.30am.

After lunch they train again, or attend gambling, alcohol or other addiction workshops to prepare them for a life that may not involve Chelsea.

They download their IAP (Individual Action Plans), a five-point guide tailored to each young player to help with their development on the field.

They showed signs of progress on Monday when Chelsea’s young players stormed into a convincing 5-0 lead over a club widely considered to have one of the best scouting networks in the game.

After all this time, plus the phenomenal amounts of money spent on expensive overseas prospects, Chelsea are once again filling their youth teams with local players

These days, it’s not just about making up the numbers.