Reports are circulating this morning that Chelsea will be adding 16-year old Izzy Brown, so it makes sense to take a little look at the player to see what exactly we'd be getting. He's young and has only one career senior appearance to his name at this point, but academy play in England is far from impossible to follow, and hes been involved with the England U16 and U17 setups as well.
Brown caught the attention of the English media when he was named to West Brom's squad to face Chelsea earlier this year. That put him in line to become the youngest Premier League debutante ever, although the 16-year old didn't get off the bench for that game. Here's what he had to say about joining up wit the first team for that one:
Brown mentions his twitter account, which you can follow here if you'd like. He did eventually make his debut for West Brom against Wigan, and had the following to say about that experience:
So we've heard a bit of Brown talking about his first few experiences with the first team, but what exactly does he bring to the table? The 16-year old currently stands around 6'0" tall, although at his age he's probably still growing vertically. He also appears to be a fairly well-built kid, and he's almost certainly going to get stronger over the course of the next decade and a half. Here's a quick look at Brown in action from some of his time in the Albion setup:
One thing you'll notice there is that Brown is quite a bit faster than most of his opposition, and that's not something that's unusual with the youngster or likely to change in the future. He's a pretty fantastic athlete, and could be an elite-level sprinter on the track if he didn't choose a career in professional football. Big and athletically gifted are a combination I absolutely love, and it appears the decision makers at Chelsea do as well.
Brown was named the academy player of the year at WBA, and the coaching staff explain a bit about what exactly he brings to the table:
The WBA staff briefly touched on what Brown brings to the table beyond his impressive physical gifts, but I'm going to leave that to one of our writers that has certainly seen enough of him to comment more. I will say that I've been consistently impressed with him in every instance that I've watched him play, and it's not hard to see a Chelsea caliber player if the rest of his game develops enough to match his tools.
I'm really hoping that the Mirror reports are accurate, and that Chelsea have indeed reached an agreement that will see Isaiah Brown joining the club at some point in the future. He'd be yet another fantastic addition to the stable of young talent we've been stockpiling, and certainly has the ability to become a Chelsea-caliber player in the future.