At first, Chelsea fans may have thought it was about making sure that Maurizio Sarri’s preferred players for the starting line up understood his philosophy. But Sarri’s constant use of senior players over the club’s academy graduates perhaps shows the Italian tactician may not believe that much in his starlets.
Against Vidi, Sarri once again resisted the temptation to select Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu, for the third time this season.
It is true that with tactics as complicated as Sarri’s it may take a while before some of his players understand them fully. But when Chelsea take on a side from Hungary in the Europa League, you would expect that a couple of fringe players might get the chance to impress. Hudson-Odoi and Ampadu covered well for their senior colleagues in pre-season and were tipped to have a fine campaign, but it has been anything but that so far.
First against PAOK in the Blues first Europa League group game, then Liverpool in the Carabao Cup before the Thursday night European clash against Vidi, the chances are flying by for Chelsea fans to see their promising stars in action this season. Not even a cameo in the Blues game against Southampton, the youngsters at Chelsea may need to advise themselves if they want to be the next crop of starlets to taste Three Lions call-ups, after Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Nathaniel Chalobah last season and Mason Mount and Jadon Sancho in this campaign.
The calls have been clear, but the manager is resisting all of them. Soon he may be answering to club director Marina Granovskaia and her popular superior if results go bad and there are no signs of youth progress.
