Chelsea may be struggling at senior level, but — somewhat ironically given the millions we’ve spent on supposedly top-tier young talent — we’re doing quite well at Academy level.
The U18s (coached by Dan Hogan since January; Hassan Sulaiman before then) are currently leading the South Division of the U18 Premier League while the U21s (coached by Harry Hudson since January; Calum McFarlane before then*) were confirmed as regular season champions of the PL2 (i.e. Premier League 2) this past weekend.
In both competitions however, the overall winners will be decided in the playoffs. For the PL2 playoffs, Chelsea will enter as the top seed.
A couple years ago, the Premier League 2 switched to a single-division format containing all Category 1 academies. For this season, that translated to a record 29 teams in the division — though through a convoluted setup, each team would end up playing just 20 of the 29, for a total of 20 games each. Chelsea won 14 of our 20 games, finishing level on points with Manchester United, but with a much better goal difference (+27 vs. +17). Incidentally, both teams lost on the final weekend. A massive part of that goal difference was our top scorer, Shim Mheuka, who also led the league in scoring with 17 goals in 17 appearances. Very nice!
The top 16 now enter a single-elimination playoff. Our opponents for the first round have not yet been determined, as a few teams have yet to play their final game. We will play whoever finish 16th: currently that’s Middlesbrough, but it could still also be Stoke City or, much less likely, Aston Villa or Sunderland.
Last season, as the third seed, we fell in the second round thanks to an absolute drubbing from sixth-seeded Crystal Palace (6-0). Let’s not do that again!
The Blues have not won the PL2 since 2019-20 (under the old promotion/relegation format). That team featured the likes of Marc Guéhi, Ian Maatsen, Billy Gilmour, Tariq Lamptey, Tino Anjorin, Armando Broja, and even a very young Tino Livramento and Levi Colwill at times. All top tier talent!
Who are in line to be heroes this year? (Who will be our saviors when the financial house of cards collapses?) Mheuka has led the way, but there are many other, already familiar names as well (from their occasional times around the first-team), like Jesse Derry, Reggie Walsh, and Ryan Kavuma-McQueen. Right back Genesis Antwi has played in all but one game, while Kaiden Wilson and Harrison Murray-Campbell have formed a solid partnership in the center of defense. Landon Emenalo, the son of our former technical director Michael Emenalo is the starting left back. Midfielders Ollie Harrison and Leo Cardoso have also been key players. Max Merrick has handled the goalkeeping duties, mostly. (Dujuan “Whisper” Richards was an important player in the first half of the season as well, coming back from his long-term injury, before joining Leicester City on loan in January — unfortunately, he’s barely played for them.)
The playoffs should be starting here very shortly, though official dates and times for the games have not been announced yet.
*McFarlane, following his brief stint as interim first-team head coach, joined Liam Rosenior’s staff. Hudson was promoted from the U18s to take his place — instead of Sulaiman, who unfortunately got the boot instead amid all these changes in January. Hogan was pulled up from the U16s to take his place.
