“Young players are a little bit like melons. Only when you open and taste the melon are you 100 per cent sure that the melon is good.
Sometimes you have beautiful melons but they don’t taste very good and some other melons are a bit ugly and when you open them, the taste is fantastic… One thing is youth football, one thing is professional football. The bridge is a difficult one to cross and they have to play with us and train with us for us to taste the melon.”
That was one of the more candid quotes Jose Mourinho had about the youth players at Chelsea during his first spell, during that memorable rant he was referring to Scott Sinclair and while Sinclair hasn’t really lived up to expectations, Chelsea do have some really talented young players who could break into the team pretty soon.
The need for talent from within any club is important especially thanks to FFP kicking in and you can’t expect Roman to throw his millions every single time each season, we look at three Chelsea players who could be breaking into the tea next year.
1. Patrick Bamford
On loan at Middlesbrough, the forward has taken the Championship by storm and could help the team reach the Premier League this season. Bamford has scored 19 goals in 42 appearances for the club and at only 21-years-old he still has a big future ahead of him. Bamford might still be on loan next season but with Drogba leaving at the end of the season and Loic Remy not doing as much as expected, Bamford will be looking for a bigger role next season.