Chelsea's Top 5 Recent Young Pretenders

The list of Chelsea's failed young stars to come through the club's academy in the Premier League era is almost too long to mention.

For years now, and especially since Roman Abramovich's takeover of the club in 2003, Blues fans have dreamed of their next hero to rise from the Stamford Bridge ranks, but in the past two decades, it's only John Terry who has become a true star.

Frank Sinclair, Eddie Newton, Michael Duberry and the like carved out respectable careers for themselves in the mid-'90s, yet outside of Terry, you can count on one hand the others who have established themselves since.

In fact, you can count them on one finger even, as other than Ryan Bertrand—who himself remains on the fringes—there has not been another youth product from the King's Road to enjoy a prolonged career in a blue shirt.

Whether it be the money Chelsea have at their disposal or a lack of coaching talent within the club's youth ranks, the process from rising youth star to world beater often ends in failure.

Chelsea are not the only club to suffer from such problems, but with the spotlight often focused on Stamford Bridge, there's no escaping the failures the club continues to endure.

In 2012-13, the Blues youth team reached the finals of the NextGen Series and FA Youth Cup, but all the talk this summer has been of £100 million spending sprees (via Evening Standard), while another expensive import in Andre Schurrle has already been added to the first-team squad.

It means the route to any young star making a name for himself in West London, regardless of talent, is going to be all that bit harder, despite any hype from his performances in the lower ranks.

With this in mind, Bleacher Report takes a look at five former Chelsea hopefuls who once had high hopes, but saw their Stamford Bridge careers fail to take off.

Jody Morris

Of all Chelsea's youth products to not go on to bigger and better things, Jody Morris is probably the one most fans will look at with most regret.

When he first came on the scene, making his debut as a 17-year-old, Morris looked the part. His diminutive frame often led to comparisons with then-Blues captain Dennis Wise, but he had a little more than the former legend.

Morris' touch was sublime, and call it romantic hindsight, he should have been an England regular, let alone a feature of the Chelsea midfield.

With problems off the pitch beginning to impact his image and life, he departed Chelsea in 2003 and has since endured a career that's become a shadow of what he should have achieved.

In January 2013, he was released by Bristol City—a team who would go on to be relegated from the Championship.

In an interview with The Independent in March this year, Morris spoke of the highs and lows in his career that include Barcelona's Xavi naming him as the toughest opponent he's faced and Rio Ferdinand labeling him the best schoolboy footballer in London while they were growing up.

"

I was so young, around the first team at 17 and seeing Christmas parties that were... unmentionable. But the game changed and got so global and massive and the scrutiny [increased]. I went on for a few years with what I was used to... not realizing quick enough you have to change certain things.

"

Had Morris realized, he could very well be mentioned in the same esteem as his close friends John Terry and Frank Lampard.

Jimmy Smith

Given his Chelsea debut in an away fixture against Newcastle United by Jose Mourinho in 2006, Jimmy Smith must have believed his time had come at Stamford Bridge. Not so.

That appearance would be his only one in the Premier League for Chelsea, and the young hopeful was forced to leave for Leyton Orient in 2009 as he searched for first-team football after a number of loan spells and managerial changes at Stamford Bridge saw opportunities hard to come by.

Smith, now 26 years old, told the Evening Standard in 2010:

"

It was frustrating that I never really got the chance. I remember thinking I was involved, then I'd go on loan. I'd come back to a new manager and think I'd have another chance. I was always in and around the first team but things changed. That's why I felt it was time to move on and do what's right for me.

"

Smith is still plying his trade in League 1 but is now with Stevenage, joining the club from Orient this summer.

Gael Kakuta

Given the efforts with which Chelsea went to capture Gael Kakuta from Lens in 2007, it's perhaps a surprise the Frenchman hasn't been given more opportunities at Stamford Bridge.

The 22-year-old remains a Chelsea player of course, but with loan spells at Dijon in France and Vitesse Arnhem in Holland failing to live up to expectation, Kakuta has fallen well off the radar.

In 2009, Kakuta was banned for four months and fined €780,000 by FIFA for breach of contract while at Lens, while the Blues themselves received a fine and transfer embargo for their part in his signing.

Both were later lifted upon appeal, but it outlined the events that led to Kakuta's transfer, with allegations of the Blues "tapping up" the youngster in a bid to lure him to London (via The Daily Mail).

"The easiest way to describe him is a phenomenon," said his former coach at Lens, Joachim Marx, in an interview with The Daily Mail. If only Chelsea fans could have seen that.

Michael Woods

Another youngster to arrive at Chelsea under a cloud, Michael Woods joined the Blues from Leeds United along with Tom Taiwo in 2006.

The pair were Leeds' most highly regarded youngsters at the time, and such was the disappointment from chairman Ken Bates with his ex-club's apparent conduct in the transfer that the Yorkshire club later won a case for compensation, being awarded £5 million (via The Daily Mail).

With the buzz around both players, it could have been money well spent, but time has shown us that it has been anything but.

Of the pair, Woods was seen as the superior talent over Taiwo, even appearing in an FA Cup clash for Chelsea against Macclesfield in January 2007.

It was as far as he would get, however, and he never made an impact at Stamford Bridge, leaving the club in 2011. He later joined Yeovil Town before moving to Doncaster Rovers in 2012.

Woods now plays for Conference North outfit Harrogate Town, while Taiwo plies his trade in the SPL for Hibernian.

Michael Mancienne

Michael Mancienne was being tipped as the next John Terry despite their different styles, as he also played at center-back and had progressed through Chelsea's ranks.

But where Terry has grown into a club legend throughout his Stamford Bridge career, Mancienne is very much a forgotten man.

He was still a schoolboy when he first appeared for the club's reserve team, but it was two seasonlong loan spells with QPR where he really stood out.

After several spells with Wolves, he returned to West London with plenty of experience, even winning a call-up to the England squad.

He failed to impress then-Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti, however, and in 2011 was sold to Bundesliga side Hamburg for around £1.75 million, joining the growing list of Chelsea youngsters who have failed to make the grade in the process.