Marescas

Walsh highlights Chelsea’s vision for the future but also the ghosts of the recent past.

Against Ajax, Chelsea gave minutes to 10 players aged 21 or younger, having not played a player over the age of 28 since the beginning of last season.

Chelsea broke several other records on Wednesday, including:

Brazil international Estevao continues to impress after joining the Blues this summer.

The forward was last week one of three Chelsea players nominated for the Golden Boy award, which recognises the standout young players across the European game – along with Jorrel Hato, Mamadou Sarr.

And, after Hato described him as one of the best teenagers in football after Lamine Yamal, Maresca was full of praise for his display.

He said: “I feel very lucky to be his manager. The fans pay tickets to see players like Cole (Palmer) and Estevao.

“He’s very humble and polite, wants to work hard. He has fantastic family who are very close to him. He’s a special player but we don’t have to be worried that he thinks he knows how good he is. He’s a very simple guy.

“It’s a special night for the club and its young players.”

The Blues are the youngest team in the Premier League and are among the youngest teams in Europe’s top five leagues, coming second behind only sister club Strasbourg last season, which is under the same BlueCo American ownership.

Chelsea’s strategy, which sometimes faces criticism, is by design and one they believe will lead to greater success in the long-term, having already won the Conference League and Club World Cup last season.

Despite that, signing so many young players can send the wrong message to the club’s famed academy and there is a delicate balance to be struck.

Chelsea were horrified when they lost attacker Rio Ngumoha to Liverpool in 2024 and vowed it would never happen again.

Since then, Maresca gave a record eight academy players their debuts last season, albeit against lesser competition in the Conference League.

In addition to Walsh, older academy graduates George and Josh Acheampong, both 19, have been given full-time first-team roles.

Meanwhile, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen, 16, was on the bench against Ajax for the first time and is among an exciting future generation.

Chelsea academy graduates usually have a couple of well-trodden pathways – breakthrough, loan, first team. Or breakthrough, loan, sale.

The Blues have moved on more than 40 homegrown players in the past decade, and made £315m from selling academy-developed talent in the last four seasons alone – £100m more than Manchester City.

But their latest high-profile prospect George has bucked that trend so far and can look at how Levi Colwill, Trevoh Chalobah and Reece James have progressed to first-team success.

George’s strike against Fulham on 20 April, aged 19 years and 75 days, saw him become the club’s youngest scorer in the Premier League since Callum Hudson-Odoi netted against Burnley in January 2020.

The winger’s breakthrough season included Carabao Cup games against Barrow and Morecambe, substitute league appearances against Arsenal and Brighton, and more than 750 minutes in 12 Conference League games, including a goal in the quarter-final first-leg win at Legia Warsaw.

George, who turned 19 in February, is disrupting the ‘Chelsea’ narrative thanks to a level of dedication unusual even in this era of youth development.

The last Chelsea player to come through the youth system into the first team without a loan was one of his idols, Hudson-Odoi in January 2018.

A source told BBC Sport that in his early years at Chelsea, George was a ‘middling’ player in his age group until around the age of 10.

It was at that point his dad hired a goalkeeper as well as a personal coach, David ‘Guru’ Sobers, to raise his game.

In midweek, George would train with Chelsea, and then from the age of 13 on Fridays, he would play against men in nine-a-side matches at either Vauxhall or Nine Elms Power League in South London.

On Saturdays, he would train again and go through post-match analysis with Sobers from his Power League matches the previous evening, before going back to Chelsea on Sunday to play.

“I used to spend hours travelling on public transport to do two-hour sessions, or longer, with Tyrique as I thought I could help him,” Sobers told BBC Sport.

“We would spend hours doing one-versus-one, technical work, shooting drills, and I enjoyed the fact that he would push himself so much.

“I’d be a ‘bad’ referee when he played against 18-year-olds, so he would get kicked – but have to get up and win the ball back.

“We did tactics on his Friday session during these matches. I think it helped our young players, we also had guys now at Manchester City, West Ham and Reading, become fearless, especially when coming back to their own age group.”