I have to admit I’ve never had a lot of time for Frank Arnesen. Being at Spurs, I never really wanted him at Chelsea in the first place, so when the rumours were doing the rounds he could be part of a scouting staff cull in 2008, I was pretty happy to hear it.
In my defence, he’d promised he’d deliver a youth team player to the first team within three years and hadn’t done it, so with our squad ever-ageing, I felt entitled to a little impatience. To his credit though, Abramovich has apparently had a little more patience with his director of scouting than he has with his managers – and this season, it seems to have finally paid off.
Having finally brought some players through, Arnesen says “We knew when I came the aim in 2010/11 was to have at least one player in the first team. I’ve always been supported from inside the club. Roman has been unbelievable. There have been pressures from the outside but Roman said, ‘Frank I know what you said when you came. We have an agreement, you carry on.’ I was quite comfortable that one day it’d come right. I wasn’t expecting players to come through two years ago – they were too young and this is one of the world’s best clubs. You can’t usually expect them to get through at that age. Now they are around 19 and 20, with the exception of Josh.”
So, he got there – albeit a little later than planned – and whilst we’ve yet to see how well the likes of Jeffrey Bruma, van Aanholt and Kakuta manage the transition to the first team, we certainly seem to have a real gem in Josh McEachran from the first batch of youngsters, with the 17 year old fast-tracked into the first team instead of being sent on loan as has previously been the case with players of his age. So, I guess it’s fair to say Arnesen has done his bit and Abramovich has more than indicated his commitment to the youths and the club with his patience on this one.
Blue is the colour
