'Used to be us' - Chelsea fans lament academy sales after Liverpool's viral Carabao Cup final photo

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 26 Feb 2024 11:24 GMT
• 4 min read

Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Liverpool has seen Blues fans urge for Mauricio Pochettino to be sacked and the club’s transfer policy questioned.

Pochettino’s side were dubbed ‘The Blue Billion Pound Bottlejobs’ by Gary Neville after their loss at Wembley, with Todd Boehly’s vast investment yielding very little reward thus far.

The American billionaire has pioneered a new transfer strategy since his arrival at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea focusing on signing the best young talent in world football rather than established stars.

The lack of experience in Chelsea’s squad has been apparent all season and despite Boehly’s focus on youngsters, the Blues have neglected their world-class academy over the past 18 months to such an extent that youth products are almost solely seen as ‘pure profit’ rather than players who can contribute in the first-team.

That is a direct juxtaposition of Liverpool’s current situation and the one that Chelsea found themselves in back in 2020-21.

Jurgen Klopp was forced to deal with an injury crisis ahead of the Carabao Cup final, with 11 senior players missing at Wembley, and the Reds boss called upon several academy stars to get Liverpool over the line.

After Virgil van Dijk secured the win thanks to a 118th minute header, a viral photo of Liverpool’s youngsters holding the Carabao Cup trophy did the rounds on social media. Jarell Quansah, Jayden Danns, Bobby Clark, James McConnell, Ben Doak, Lewis Koumas, Trey Nyoni, Harvey Elliott, Conor Bradley and Stefan Bajcetic were all present in the picture, with six of those players featuring in the final.

In response to the viral photo, one Liverpool fan posted on X: “This is the kinda thing you get printed and stick up all over your academy and show the kids what’s possible, even if none of them make it at Liverpool every one of them is a huge success for the club already.”

’It used to be us’

Chelsea supporters experienced a very similar sensation after their triumph in the 2021 Champions League final. Following their 1-0 win over Manchester City in Porto, Cobham academy graduates Tino Anjorin, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Billy Gilmour, Andreas Christensen and Mason Mount posed for an iconic picture that highlighted the calibre of the club’s youth system.

After all, the Blues had dominated the FA Youth Cup in the decade prior and the fruits of that labour were seen on a memorable night in Portugal.

However, James and Anjorin are the only two players still contracted at Chelsea, with the former now the club’s captain and the latter on loan at Portsmouth in League One.

Abraham left Chelsea to join AS Roma on a permanent deal in 2021, Gilmour and Christensen followed suit in 2022 (joining Brighton and Barcelona respectively), while Hudson-Odoi and Mount were both sold in 2023.

The high of Champions League glory was even sweeter for Chelsea fans due to the nature of academy influence at first-team level, but that feeling has dissipated over the past two years.

Of course, Levi Colwill and Conor Gallagher both started the Carabao Cup final, with fellow academy stars Trevoh Chalobah, Alfie Gilchrist, Jimi Tauriainen and Billy Gee on the bench, but Pochettino and Boehly have been unable to cultivate a relationship with the Chelsea fans and their reluctance to prioritise the Cobham academy may be a sizeable reason for that.

As one Chelsea fan pointed out on X in response to Liverpool’s academy photo at Wembley: “Used to be us before the worst owners in history took over.”