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Chelsea starlet encouraged to move to Tottenham

By Rucker Haringey

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 20: Charly Musonda of Chelsea celebrates after scoring during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge on September 19, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 20: Charly Musonda of Chelsea celebrates after scoring during the Carabao Cup Third Round match between Chelsea and Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge on September 19, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) /
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Charly Musonda might be better off leaving Chelsea

You know the world has gone crazy when former Chelsea players start encouraging the club’s youth players to move to Tottenham in search of greener pastures. Strangely, that’s precisely what former Blues star Graeme Le Saux is suggesting Blues’ starlet Charly Musonda do.

The talented U21 Belgian international has received quite a bit of criticism from higher-ups at the club after undertaking a social media rant about his lack of first team opportunities at Stamford Bridge. Musonda is clearly not satisfied with the 26 minutes of Premier League action Antonio Conte’s seen fit to award him in two substitute appearances.

You might expect former Chelsea stars to line up against such discontent from a youngster. Evidently Le Saux didn’t get that message. Instead of encouraging Musonda to  keep his head down and work harder, he made the interesting observation that perhaps the talented attacker would be better served taking his talents to North London. Le Saux correctly points out that Tottenham have a much better record of promoting young talent than Chelsea do at the moment.

In reality, there’s no chance that Conte is going to ship any high-level talent to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad at the moment. Chelsea trail Spurs in the Premier League table and certainly don’t want to strengthen Tottenham’s future. The point here isn’t that Musonda might be sold.

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Instead, the interesting aspect of this story is that Chelsea’s lack of commitment to developing young talent is so obvious that even club supporters are forced to acknowledge it. The fact that Conte has failed the club’s young talent in that regard could have long-term ramifications for Chelsea.

At some point, the best young players are going to start turning the Blues down. They will still sign their share of young talent due to their willingness to overpay youngsters, but the very best will opt to go to clubs where they see legitimate opportunities to break into the first team. For the record, I do not mean the first team for Vitesse.

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Sooner, rather than later, Chelsea will need to strike a balance between purchasing high-priced stars and giving their own Academy talent a real chance to impact the senior squad. If they don’t, players like Charly Musonda are going to stop entering the Blues’ pipeline. That sad reality is so obvious it cannot be ignored by former Chelsea players.

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