Mourinho: Chelsea academy MUST start producing homegrown stars
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has called for the club to start bringing homegrown players through into the first-team ranks, suggesting they may as well shut their £8million-a-year academy and spend the money on transfers otherwise.
Defender John Terry, the 34-year-old captain, was the last Chelsea-nurtured prospect to make a sustained impact in the senior side.
But, with Terry, Eden Hazard and Willian rested for Wednesday night's Champions League Group G clash with Sporting Lisbon, it seems 18-year-old midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who has been with Chelsea since the age of eight, finally has the chance to impress after being called up by Mourinho.
In July, ahead of the second season of his second spell at Stamford Bridge, the boss insisted it would be his fault if academy prospects Lewis Baker, Izzy Brown and Dominic Solanke were not soon first-team stars.
Loftus-Cheek is another hot prospect who has been fast-tracked to the first team for a match Chelsea do not need to win.
"You need to prove the academy works well and is worth it," Mourinho said.
"If the kids are not good enough or the work is not good enough - and year after year you don't bring kids to the first team - it's better to close the door and use the money that you spend on the academy to buy players."
Mourinho, who is 18 months into four-year contract, believes stability is imperative for the teenagers to realise their ambitions at Chelsea.
He added: "It's only possible if the first-team manager stays for a long time, which in this club in the last ten years, was not possible.
"Imagine next week if there's a different first-team manager with different ideas. Some product, almost an end product, becomes an empty product and you have to start everything again.
"The relationship between the first-team and the academy is changing based on this stability that, at this moment, we are having.
"The people in the academy feel they are working for something, which is why tomorrow is not Ruben's day but 'academy day'.
"To be here since he was eight and to have the chance to play for Chelsea's first team is every kid's dream. English player, 18, completely made in Chelsea. If he does it, if he succeeds, it's good.
"It's a clear message that the first-team is sending to them: work, work and the right moment, the right talent always arrives."
Mourinho spent enormous sums on transfers during a hugely successful first spell at the club from June 2004 to September 2007 when upcoming talent was in short supply.
"Every manager in the world wants to bring young people up," he said. "[But] it depends on the talent you have. Sometimes you have it. Sometimes you don't.
"I can, for example, compare my first spell here and now - and now the quality of the young players is better. It's clearly better. I have conditions to do it."