Chelsea’s academy has undergone leadership changes in the past year, with Joe Shields and Glenn van der Kraan taking charge, while Jack Francis remains a key figure from the previous regime.
Although the departure of popular former leaders Neil Bath and Jim Fraser risked unsettling the academy, insiders say the new team has integrated smoothly into a structure already thriving at that level.
Meanwhile, head coach Enzo Maresca gave debuts to eight academy players last season but was no doubt influenced by Chelsea’s participation in the Conference League, a competition that saw them face a much lower level of opposition.
A more accurate measure of academy success is Premier League minutes played, where Levi Colwill, Reece James, and Chalobah remain flag bearers for the coaching staff at Cobham.
They were joined by Tyrique George and Josh Acheampong, both promoted to the first-team squad on a full-time basis.
All in all, Chelsea gave minutes to Colwill (3,149), James (1,063), Chalobah (911), George (178), Acheampong (169), Shim Mheuka (1), which totals 5,471 minutes played by academy players in the league last season.
Compared to their ‘big six’ rivals, that’s more than Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal, although the latter impacted by a serious injury to Bukayo Saka.
However, Manchester United and Liverpool provided more minutes to homegrown players or those at the club before their 21st birthday, per Uefa’s definition, which includes United’s Amad Diallo and Garnacho.
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