Reggie

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.

Building Lego is something forward Lauren Hemp has done for years. She built a Beauty and the Beast castle while in Switzerland, which she proudly carried as the Lionesses checked out of the hotel before flying home on Monday.

Hemp managed to get others on board too, with teenager Agyemang also getting involved.

“I was building a really tiny stadium the other day because I was bored and suddenly Lucy [Bronze] was like, ‘we can make this so much better’,” said Agyemang, who was the breakout star of the tournament.

“I didn’t know she had really good skills when it came to Lego. We made a replica of the stadium and now she wants to make it a tradition, so I think we’ll have to do Geneva next time.”

Agyemang certainly kept herself busy, playing a piano that was brought over by the England kitman in a van.

“I play the piano, the bass guitar and the drums. I have my piano in my room so I’m spending a lot of time in there just playing and chilling,” she told BBC Sport.

“It’s 88 keys, so full size – but not a grand piano. It’s very important. I don’t think that there’s a day that I go without playing it because it’s right in front of me.

“Especially on game days, I probably spend about two hours just playing and enjoying myself.

“With evening games, where they are six o’clock or nine o’clock [kick-offs], there is a lot of time within the day to just chill and that is what I do.”

Agyemang’s piano playing has been so impressive it put off Williamson from playing, who performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra at Maida Vale Studios in December 2023 when she was recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

“I did bring a portable keyboard and I felt discouraged because I heard some of the other girls in the team had been playing theirs,” said Williamson.

“I felt like I was too far behind so I left it. There’s so much socialising to be done I don’t have time for hobbies. I will pick that up when I get back.”

Meanwhile, defender Esme Morgan encouraged the squad to produce basketball trick shots for a social media video in the group stages.

Chloe Kelly told BBC Sport that Morgan turned her room into a beauty salon to ensure the Lionesses looked their best on the big stage.

“We enjoy spending time together away from the pitch, which is really nice,” said Kelly.

“Whether that is Esme [Morgan] opening her beauty salon to do lash lifts, or sitting down and watching Love Island.

“It means when you go on to the pitch you know you’ve got each other’s backs.”

Lloyd Lake, the San Diego man at the center of the Reggie Bush extra benefits saga, scored a major legal victory this week over the former USC running back after a Van Nuys judge upheld an arbitrator’s decision to award Lake nearly $1.4 million in his defamation suit against Bush.

Lake filed the suit against Bush back in February 2023 — along with his parents, Roy and Barbara Gunner — alleging that Bush publicly disparaged and defamed him during a podcast appearance and in social media posts and, as such, violated the non-disparagement clause they agreed upon in a previous settlement. The comments, according to Lake and his parents’ complaint, “created a firestorm of vitriol” that saw the Gunner home vandalized with graffiti and left them fearing for their safety.

The judge’s decision this week came more than 15 years after the first explosive lawsuit between the two men was settled. That suit, which Lake first filed in 2007, claimed that he and another businessman, Michael Michaels, had provided Bush and his family with cash, a car, rent-free use of a house and other gifts while he played at USC in 2004 and 2005 with the expectation Bush would sign with Lake and his fledgling sports management company, New Era Sports & Entertainment.

The first case was settled in April 2010, just before Bush and Michaels were scheduled to be deposed. But Lake’s account of their arrangement, which violated NCAA rules, had already prompted a firestorm, one that ultimately ended in severe sanctions for USC’s football program, the vacating of the Trojans’ 2004 national title and the return of Bush’s Heisman Trophy.

As college athletes were allowed to receive compensation for use of their name, image and likeness and public opinion began shifting toward Bush, the legendary Trojan running back began sharing more about his experience and the saga that would come to define him. In an appearance on the “I Am Athlete” podcast, Bush opened up about the emotional toll the case and losing his Heisman Trophy took on him and his family. Bush eventually succeeded in having the Heisman returned to him in 2024.

Neither of the two men had spoken publicly about the other in more than a decade, abiding by the non-disparagement agreement in their 2010 settlement. At the time of that agreement, all parties involved — including Bush’s mother and stepfather — agreed to “not make any statements or representations to any person that may cast another Party to this Agreement in an unfavorable light, that are offensive to or disparage them, or that could adversely affect their name and reputation.”

But during the 2022 podcast interview, Bush went on to accuse Lake of blackmail and exaggerate Lake’s criminal record, which he said was “as long as the Cheesecake Factory menu.” Months later, in a Twitter post, Bush falsely accused Lake of being a convicted rapist.

The same week the podcast was published, the Gunners’ home was vandalized with graffiti. The threatening message left behind, written in red spray paint on an outside wall, read: “Help Reggie Bush Get His Trophy Back F— Crook.” The number “187” was also spray painted on the wall, which the plaintiff attorneys say referred to the state penal code number for murder. They blamed the graffiti on “unknown bad actors” working “on behalf of or at the direction of Bush.”

Lake’s attorneys first sought to bring the case to a jury trial. But a judge ruled in June 2024, that Lake’s lawsuit against Bush would go to binding, confidential arbitration, per the terms of their original settlement.

The arbitrator in the case, Jeffrey G. Benz, ultimately ruled in Lake’s favor, awarding him $500,000, as well as $764,640 in attorneys’ fees and $116,780 in other costs, according to court documents. Still, Bush’s attorneys continued to challenge the ruling by arguing that Benz had exceeded his authority as the arbitrator.

Their latest challenge was quashed this week by Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Eric Harmon, who took only a few hours to reaffirm the arbitrator’s decision.

But Bush and his legal team succeeded, in one respect: Bush’s responses to Lake’s petition, as well as other supporting exhibits and documents pertaining to Bush’s side of the case, remain under seal or heavily redacted.