The Impact of Chelsea's New Youth Strategy

Remember which direction Chelsea's squad cost was headed at the beginning of this season?




We all know that squad transfer cost correlates to success, especially in the case of Chelsea.

Turns out the big guns would concur that reduced spending has impacted their form.

The big players are back, but for how long? The worry at Chelsea, as the champions enter a Christmas programme of four matches in 10 days, is that the rush of fixtures will overwhelm a much smaller squad than has previously been the case in the Roman Abramovich era. This concern was revealed yesterday by John Terry, and tacitly confirmed by his manager, Carlo Ancelotti.

Pondering the recent poor run of form, Chelsea's worst in 10 years, Terry said: "We've missed some key players at key times. In the past we had a big squad and could rotate and put other players in, we don't have that now, we have quite a young squad."

Somehow I don't feel so bad for a club now learning how to actually operate like an actual soccer team, and not some rich man's plaything that buys championships for it's owner.

UPDATE: I don't know how many times I heard Steve McManaman and Ian Darke make this exact point this evening during the Chelsea/Arsenal match.  I heard phrases like "old", "tired", and "who on that bench is going to come on to the pitch and strike fear into the opposition when Chelsea is already down?"  If they're seeing it, their must be some truth to the perception.  Perhaps years of buying championships by Chelsea is on hold for a while.