Chelsea: Time For The Young Talent?

Chelsea have had more than their share of criticism when it comes to lashing out on big names and failing to pay much attention to developing young players.

However, to be fair to Scolari, even with it being fairly early in the season, two or three of our younger players have at least found their way onto the first team bench already this season and that has to be a good sign.

One of those youngsters is 18 year old Miroslav Stoch—a typical winger with an abundance of pace and dribbling skills. His low centre of gravity is also said to make him a bit of a handful when on the ball.

 

Stoch was signed by Chelsea’s youth academy in 2006 and was a regular for the Under-18’s in the 2006/07 season. Despite always playing on the wing, he ended that season as the Under-18’s top goal scorer with 11 goals, and after an impressive start to the 2007/08 season, Stoch quickly made the leap to the reserves.

 

As part of that reserves team, Stoch enjoyed a 4-0 win in a friendly against AC Milan on Friday night, not only getting himself on the score-sheet, but being award man-of-the match. Reserve team coach Brendan Rogers described his performance as "outstanding".

 

The Slovakian midfielder who has trained with the first team this season, has made the bench against both CFR Cluj and Portsmouth so far this term and although he is yet to make an appearance, suggests that just being part of the first team squad is a big thing for him.

 

"I hoped a little that I could play for a few minutes. Maybe next time. At Cluj it seemed that the coach was preparing me to come on. He told me that I should not be afraid if I get my chance to play," Stoch said.

 

"He let me warm-up for a long time and the hope that I could play seemed quite high, but the game went badly for us.

 

Competition is high here and a few players would have to drop out for me to play. Ahead of me is Joe Cole, Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou."

 

So, it seems Scolari has already made a start on preparing Stoch psychologically, and the talented youngster added: "To play in this team would be a life experience for me. I hope I will not be waiting too long for that.”

 

And at the rate Stoch seems to have risen through the ranks so far, I’m sure it won’t be too long before we see him making his first-team debut.

 

He has to sort his bloody hair out though!