If and when football returns, Chelsea will be expected to dip into the transfer market and continue adding key pieces to the team, to build on the foundation established by this season’s Youth Revolution™.
At the same time however, the paradigm shift that enabled said revolution, not to mention the club-record number of senior debutants in not even an entire season (thus far), shouldn’t be forgotten either. If we are truly serious about combining the romance of homegrown talent with the business of winning, we have to keep the pathway open from the Academy to the first-team (even through a loan-detour or two).
One player who’s currently on that path and looking ahead to what’s coming around the bend is Trevoh Chalobah, younger brother of Nathaniel Chalobah. For the elder Chalobah, that path turned out to be a rather windy (and windy, too, especially headwinds), and one that only ended up leading him away from Stamford Bridge for good. For the younger Chalobah, the Chelsea dream remains alive still, especially after last summer’s brief time with Frank Lampard and crew, including his former youth coach Jody Morris, at pre-season camp in Dublin.
“You could see straight away what Lampard wanted. Working hard, winning the ball back and that’s what you can see from Chelsea now. Keeping the ball, playing good, attacking football and you could see right away when he came in that it was what he ingrained in the lads.
“Obviously in pre-season it was really good and playing that game in Ireland was fantastic to play under him.”
But soon after, Trevoh was heading back to England and joining Huddersfield Town for a second straight season on loan in the Championship. He’s featured regularly for the Terriers, just as he had at Ipswich Town the season previous — playing mostly in defensive midfield after coming up as a center back in the Academy. Now, you get the sense that he’s ready for more after 74 games and over 5000 minutes in senior professional football.
Seeing his fellow Chelsea Academy stars make the step up this year from second division loans certainly shows that such dreams are not at all outrageous these days.
“As long as you believe in yourself then you will feel it’s possible.
“I think those boys have shown that going on loan is beneficial for the players. To go out and get game time and experience, that’s the main thing. Those boys have come in and done well and proved people wrong that they are good enough. It just shows that the loan system does work and if you do well then you can have the achievements they have had.
“I speak to them almost every day, so it’s really good. I have been watching most of their games, seen them scoring and I’m happy for them.”
Trevoh, who turns 21 this summer, signed a three-year extension with Chelsea last year. That puts him in an ideal position to stake a claim for next season, without too much pressure on either side to make a final decision regarding his immediate future.
“It was good to get a new deal and get rewarded for what I had done well last year. This year is the same, really, just focusing on Huddersfield, doing my best for the team and then just seeing what happens next season.
“I think after this two years experience that I have had in the Championship, everyone knows that the Championship is a really good league and it is just one step away (from the Premier League).
“It is my dream to play in the Premier League. So I want to finish off the season as strong as possible and see what happens.”
-Trevoh Chalobah; source: Football.London
Chalobah, an England U21 international and also captain in younger age groups, has earned good-to-excellent reviews for his performances over his two loans — alongside some criticism, which isn’t surprising given his age and the fact that both of his loans had been to struggling sides — and is certainly one to watch for the future.
He’s got the skill, the size, and the mentality to make it at the top level — and isn’t like any of our other (defensive) midfielders at the moment — equally able to make the strong challenge or the smart interception, chase down an opponent with a blistering recovery run, power through the midfield, or pick a Hollywood-ball.
“A fantastic professional. For a young player he has a really mature head on his shoulders - he does everything right in terms of the way he lives and trains.”
“He has got good use of passing, he has that ability to come out into that false full-back position, punch passes and find the No10 in the half spaces. He has real athleticism, he can make driving runs with the ball and those corner runs that we like that can get him in down the right hand side and free up space for other players by making unselfish runs. He obviously has a physical presence about him and we are trying to help him with that aspect - people see him as a 6ft 2in physical specimen and athlete, which he is - and we are trying to get him to use those God-given talents to the best of his ability.”
“Trevoh is young, but he wants to learn and he wants to improve and he will be a top player. Let me tell you he will definitely, definitely, definitely be a top, top player.”
-Danny Cowley, Huddersfield manager; source: Yorkshire Live
Right to the very top!
Steps Up: Trevoh Chalobah on settling in midfield and fighting for survival - In the latest instalment of a feature where we speak to one of our players out on loan, we hear from Trevoh Chalobah, the 20-year-old midfielder who is currently playing regula… https://t.co/EvVg4T4ASR
— CFC News (@CFCnews) March 19, 2020