Two years ago, Fikayo Tomori had just broken into England’s senior squad off the back of several excellent performances in the Premier League for Chelsea. A year later, with Tomori now frozen out of then-manager Frank Lampard’s lineups, fellow Cobham graduate Marc Guéhi was embarking on a sensational loan spell at Swansea City, staking his…

While being interviewed on Belgian television in August, AC Milan winger Alexis Saelemaekers had a rather surprising response when he was asked who was the most talented player the Italian giant has.   “Rafael Leão,” Saelemaekers replied on Eleven Sports Belgium.  “I have said this to him many times that, if he wants, he can…

Zambia have produced two of Europe’s most exciting young talents – Patson Daka is the one many football fans have become familiar with thanks to his goalscoring exploits, but it’s his Zambian footballing brother Enock Mwepu who is gaining the recognition of Premier League fans lately. Mwepu is still very much unknown by many –…

When Kyogo Furuhashi joined Celtic from Vissel Kobe as Ange Postecoglou’s real statement signing having admired the player from his position in the dugout at Yokohama F Marinos, many in Scotland had no idea what they were in for. Soon enough, you had all of Celtic Twitter tuning into a 10 am game in Japan…

In part one of this series, I explicated my thoughts on Mount as a personality, as the new face of Cobham, and as an icon of the new epoch that awaits Chelsea. Mount, according to reports from The Athletic, sets the tone in training both under his former boss Frank Lampard and now under his…

When Pescara won the 2011/12 Serie B title, it had done so playing with great panache under Czech coach Zdeněk Zeman and a crop of young Italian youngsters emerged under his tutelage.    Creative midfielder Marco Verratti as well as forwards Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne starred for the Delfini in Italy’s second division throughout…

For players in the formative years of their professional career, exposure to success is incredibly important. Therefore, it would be foolish to argue that the biggest clubs shouldn’t utilise their equally established youth setup to develop their talent pool right in front of their eyes. However, there are many strands of developmental success that cannot…

Despite such obvious talent, there was little complaint when Mattéo Guendouzi left Arsenal for Marseille in July 2021. With a reported obligation to buy for £12 million, the former PSG academy player had all but destroyed his reputation with the Arsenal faithful.   Following problems at a pre-season camp in Dubai and the infamous altercation…

From well before the commencement of the 2020/21 Premier League campaign, Chelsea Football Club had made their intentions clear in an attempt to aggressively rebuild and earn their place as contenders for the title. After a successful 2019/20 campaign riddled with adversity, Frank Lampard remained at the helm of the team to begin their push…

Guarulhos, a city in Brazil’s most populous state of Sao Paulo, has in recent times churned out talent in the footballing world from former Olympique Lyonnais captain Cris, to Arsenal’s current starlet Gabriel Martinelli. However, arguably one of the rawest and ripe talents could just be Claudinho, whose flair and eccentricity derives from the streets…