Chelsea are close to wrapping up a few first team sales, but they’ve also got rid of a host of players from their youth teams.
Some, like goalkeeper Nathan Baxter, have been at the club for more than fifteen years, despite not being a household name like some of his old youth team peers and despite not having made a first team appearance.
Baxter was announced to be on the club’s release list last week, and according to Nizaar Kinsella’s piece today he’s just turned down MAccabi Haifa (who will play in the Champions League this season) for Bolton, who play in League One. It’s a step down, as he has had two seasons in the Championship, but returning to League One will allow him to be a guaranteed starter and hopefully put him in place to help Bolton gain promotion.
Call us crazy, we’d have taken the Israeli adventure, at least for a year. But Baxter is building a nice career in the lower levels of English league football and we can understand why he keeps wanting to work on his reputation there rather than potentially losing his way far from home.
We’re gutted he never got a chance to play for us, but we’re sure he will take that Cobham class to the very top somewhere, and we certainly don’t expect him to be in League One for long.
