Frank Arnesan and Hamburg Raid Chelsea's Youth Academy

While Chelsea seem to be busy spending mega millions to lure top-notch talent to play for them, their ex-sporting director Frank Arnesan has silently been usurping young academy talents from Chelsea to Hamburg. 

The first to leave was Michael Mancienne. The Chelsea defender signed a four-year deal with Hamburg. He had a very good spell when he was loaned to the Wolves.

The next to leave was 19-year-old Jacopo Sala, who helped Chelsea with the 2010 FA Youth Cup. The versatile midfielder from Italy was unable to find an opportunity to play first-team football while at Chelsea.

Another youth player struggling to get into the first team was 19-year-old Gokhan Tore. This German native can play as a left winger or attacking midfielder. Tore signed a three-year deal with Hamburg.

Also confirmed is the fact that Hamburg are planning on getting the signature of Jeffrey Bruma, who plays central defense.

That is four players from the Chelsea academy that are making their way out of London. It is not known if Chelsea let them go because they were not good enough to meet the standards needed to break into the first team or if Chelsea was reluctant to give them better deals.

At a time when talk is about raising home-grown/academy players for the Champions League, it is interesting to see Chelsea lose three, possibly four products of their academy.

What prompted the sale? Was it just good business or were they not as good as the hype advertised or is it a sign that the academy is not really up to the mark?