The big Chelsea news of today is the agreement of a new four and a half year contract with young academy defender Josh Acheampong.
It seemed for a long time like the 18 year old was set to leave Chelsea after being frozen out of action at all levels until he signed a new deal. Now it’s happened, everyone can move on. According to David Ornstein’s piece in the Athletic, this is being viewed internally as a big victory for the sporting structure at the club:
“Acheampong is now training with head coach Enzo Maresca’s squad on a daily basis and has a good chance to start again when Shamrock Rovers visit in the same competition on Thursday,” Ornstein reports in his piece.
“Maresca is known to be keen on working with such prospects and integrating them into his plans,” he continues.
Chelsea structure delighted by victory in stand-off
Inside Chelsea, people are clearly delighted too:
“Retaining the England youth player is also viewed internally as a statement of intent by co-director of recruitment and talent Joe Shields and academy director Glenn van der Kraan, in conjunction with co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley.”
The sporting directors have taken a lot of flak since taking over, and are now in turn getting a lot of praise as the team comes together and rockets up the table.
Van der Kraan is under pressure to produce as he takes over one of the best academies in world football, and he will see this as a major first achievement in that role. He can’t take any credit for developing Josh, but he’s played his part in keeping him around, and now can look towards developing more players of his standard for the future.
