Chelsea risk Solanke & Abraham 2.0 with academy wonderkid

Cameron Smith

• 23 Feb 2024 18:43 GMT
• 4 min read

Chelsea’s academy is one of the very best in the world and the Blues have produced some outstanding players over the years.

From John Terry in the late 1990s to the likes of Reece James and Mason Mount in the 2010s, Chelsea have a history of developing young talents into Premier League stars.

Following Todd Boehly’s arrival, however, the Blues’ academy has been somewhat overlooked.

Due to the ‘pure profit’ benefit of selling homegrown talents, Chelsea’s best academy stars have recently been seen as a vessel for financial improvement, with Callum Hudson-Odoi and the aforementioned Mount both moved on last summer.

Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah have also been linked with leaving the club over the past few months, while Lewis Hall’s loan move to Newcastle United is close to becoming permanent.

While Chelsea’s policy of signing the best young talents across the world should stand them in good stead moving forward, it would be remiss of Boehly to completely ignore the incredible talent factory on his doorstep.

The Blues’ recent struggles in front of goal has led to question marks over the decisions to sell both Dominic Solanke and Tammy Abraham, with the former now tearing it up for Bournemouth in the Premier League and the latter still highly-regarded despite a difficult 12 months at Roma.

However, if Chelsea continue to prioritise selling academy stars in order to generate pure profit they could make a similar mistake.

Ronnie Stutter: Chelsea’s future number nine?

Nicolas Jackson has shown glimpses of his potential since his summer move from Villarreal, but it’s evident that he is still more-suited to playing in a counter-attacking system rather than a possession-heavy one.

As a result, Chelsea’s pursuit of Napoli superstar Victor Osimhen makes perfect sense, although they do have a fantastic option in their academy by the name of Ronnie Stutter.

Just like Solanke and Abraham did previously, Stutter is currently ripping things up in Chelsea’s academy.

He has scored 10 goals and provided one assist in 14 matches for Chelsea’s U23 side so far this campaign, while his strike against Middlesbrough means he has found the back of the net in each of his last three matches.

Stutter is extremely unlikely to match Solanke’s 37 goal contributions for Chelsea’s academy in the 2014-15 season, but he could well better Abraham’s tally of 17 from that same campaign.

If he does that, it will prove he is ready for a senior loan move away from Stamford Bridge. Once he returns, Chelsea must make a decision on his future and if lessons have been learned from the departures of Solanke and Abraham, the Blues will keep hold of him.

Osimhen is seen as Chelsea’s long-term number nine, but if Stutter continues his impressive rise then there’s no reason why he can’t be a key part of the Blues’ senior side in a few years time.