Chelsea’s strategy was ridiculed, but youth-first plan showing it could pay big dividends

After strong start to season there is growing confidence at Stamford Bridge that model for long-term success is being built

For a club who have faced constant accusations of lacking a coherent plan, Chelsea’s project could not have become any clearer during the first six Premier League games of this season.
Chelsea have named the youngest top-flight team in all six of the match weeks ahead of their seventh game of the season against Nottingham Forest on Sunday. The plan is there in black and white, and there is growing confidence inside Stamford Bridge that it will eventually pay off handsomely.
As head coach Enzo Maresca has stressed, Chelsea are still some way behind Manchester City and Arsenal. But there is belief they are building something lasting and that if and when they do become winners, they will be in position to win again and again.
According to statistics provided by Opta, the average age of Chelsea’s starting team across their six league games so far has been 23 years and 228 days, which is two years and one day younger than the second-youngest, Bournemouth.
Currently, Chelsea are on course to become the youngest-ever Premier League team over an entire season. To do so they would overtake the 1999-2000 Leeds United team (24 years and 162 days), which is also the youngest-ever to finish in the top four.
Chelsea are yet to name a player aged over 27 in their match squad and the only player over 30 at the club is third-choice goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli. The average age of the eight first-team players Chelsea signed in the summer was 23, although that has nudged up slightly since Tosin Adarabioyo celebrated his 27th birthday last week.
Alan Hansen famously claimed “you can’t win anything with kids” after a youthful Manchester United side started the 1995-96 season with a 3-1 defeat by Aston Villa. United would finish that campaign as league and FA Cup winners with a team whose average age was 25 years and 345 days.
Chelsea hold the records for the youngest team (25 and 250 days) to win the Premier League title in 2004-05 and also the oldest champions in 2009-10, with an average age of 29 years and 95 days.
What may well interest Chelsea’s owners and sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart most about that is that five players from the 04-05 side, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, also played crucial roles in the 2009-10 team.
Cole Palmer is undisputedly the face of the current Chelsea generation and, aged 22, is contracted to the club until 2033, when he will be 31-years-old. Levi Colwill is the most exciting home-grown central defender Chelsea have produced since Terry and, aged 21, is contracted until 2030 – assuming the club eventually take up their one-year option.
Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez, Romeo Lavia, Malo Gusto, Noni Madueke, Pedro Neto, Joao Felix and Filip Jorgensen are all 24 and under, and are contracted to Chelsea until 2030 and beyond. And at least two more highly-rated teenagers, Kendry Paez and Willian Estevao, will officially join the club next summer.
Aged 44, Maresca is among the younger coaches in the Premier League and, like some of his players, is accumulating experience while on the job at Chelsea, having never before managed a top-division club. He will be acutely aware that there will be bumps in the road and that the club are rarely much further than two games from a crisis.
But the fact the Italian has said that he fell “in love” with the squad before taking the job suggests he shares the club’s view that opportunity knocks for Chelsea’s youngsters.
Chelsea’s plan has also bargained for the increased fixture list that European qualification brought, with Maresca able to rotate his entire team for Europa Conference League games and keep his young Premier League side relatively fresh.
For all the stresses, strains and chaos of the past two years under Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly, Chelsea, be it through design or some good fortune, may have timed their youth-first strategy well.
Whether or not Manchester City are punished for their 115 charges, it seems a rebuild is not far off for the Premier League champions. Key players such as Kevin De Bruyne and Kyle Walker are coming towards the end of their best years and Pep Guardiola’s starting team has been the sixth-oldest (aged over 27) in the league so far this season.
Guardiola’s future past this term has not been secured, which may well see a window of opportunity open for Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea to try to secure their own period of domination.
Arsenal are best placed to take immediate advantage and, with an average starting age of just over 26 this season, and exciting youngsters such as Ethan Nwaneri ready to break through, look well set for some time.
Liverpool have been among the oldest teams in the league so far and have issues to solve over the futures of Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson Becker. But they too have some young talent.
Chelsea have a plan to challenge City that is starting to take shape. The only real questions are do they have the patience to see it out and will it ultimately be as rewarding as they expect? If it is, then there might have been more method than some of the madness had suggested.