Chelsea have been doing this for 20 years. Gazumping clubs across Europe by taking on highly regarded 16 to 22 year olds, literally 100’s and 100’s of players. A few eventually became stars in football eg Lukaku, Salah, De Bruyne, but for the vast majority Cobham became a football career graveyard.
Copy it? - more likely go out and buy it. The worry is, with their raids on our back-room staff they might already have..........................
Brighton need to get Tim Vickery on the payroll and get him doing the scouting, he knows his onions!
I expect we are already well acquainted with that gentleman!
You should have realised by now, if a player hasn't been nailed to the touchline they can't be called a winger on NSC.
Love TV. Best TV football journalist by a country mile.
Not just 16 - 22 year olds. They ‘sign up’ kids from the age of 6 from all over, they’re relentless!
Whose parents suddenly find themselves the owners of very expensive homes.
Probably paid off all the cartels claiming to ‘own’ him
To be fair for two and a bit months each year is the centre of attention, for the other ten or so he’s the annoying prick down the pub who thinks he's every bodies mate. Pier Moron of the footballing world.
As wingbacks generally! That’s their punishment for being a hated winger!
No, even for the two and a bit months he is still an annoying prick. Bloke is a cretin who has created a weird cult of teenage boys following his every word, really strange
Very true. I remember talking to a guy from FC Copenhagen back then who was furious because they’d taken a kid to Chelsea at a really young age. They gave his Dad a “job” at the club as their excuse for uprooting the family. I think that may still have been allowed at the time but seem to remember rules were put in place to prevent that type of behaviour. I’m sure there are still loopholes.
The Dad received £650k in payments for work he never did.
I’m pretty sure this preceded that one as it would have been around the time Abramovich first pitched up. Not sure if the kid ever made it. They’ve obviously been at it for decades.
