Does Armando Broja deserve a chance at Chelsea next season?
Cameron Smith
- Updated: 28 Dec 2021 11:33 CST
- 5 min read
It's a well-known fact that Chelsea's academy is one of the very best in Europe.
The talent production at Cobham is unrivalled by most other elite clubs, and thanks to their 2019 transfer ban, a pathway to the first-team has certainly emerged.
The appointment of Frank Lampard and the aforementioned transfer ban saw the likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori break into the first-team, while Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi had already done so in previous years.
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Abraham and Tomori have now departed for Serie A, but Mount, James, Christensen, and Hudson-Odoi remain key players under Thomas Tuchel, while Trevoh Chalobah has finally established himself in the first-team this campaign.
While the route to the first-team from the academy has become slightly more blurry with the German manager now in the dugout, as seen by the departures over the summer, Tuchel remains keen on utilising Chelsea's impressive academy set-up.
Harvey Vale, Jude Soonsup-Bell, and Xavier Simons were all handed their first-team debuts in the recent Carabao Cup win over Brentford, with Tuchel reportedly a big fan of Vale in particular.
Valentino Livramento and Marc Guehi were amongst the players who left on a permanent deal over the summer, but Chelsea managed to convince several young stars to depart on loan moves, rather than be sold.
One of those players is Armando Broja, who has joined Livramento at Southampton for the season.
The striker spent last season at Vitesse in the Eredivisie, scoring 10 goals and assisting two in 21 starts as he impressed on the continent. Returning to Chelsea for pre-season, the Albanian forward scored three goals for the club, and caught the eye of Tuchel and his staff.
However, he wasn't deemed ready yet, and headed to the south coast for the season. Halfway through the season, and it's fair to say it's going well.
Broja's form for Southampton
Now, while Broja has clearly been an influential player at St Mary's, he's still not playing week-in, week-out. Slight injuries have played a part, but he's racked up less than 800 league minutes, and only seven starts.
So, considering he's only played from the start on seven occasions, his tally of four league goals is certainly impressive. He also won a penalty against West Ham, and his bullish style of play has been likened to former Chelsea forward Diego Costa.
The way he bulldozed through the West Ham defence to win the aforementioned penalty was akin to Costa, and certainly excited Chelsea fans at the thought of a similar player to the Spanish striker ending up at Stamford Bridge for the first-team.
Broja's rate of a goal every 180 minutes is a fairly good strike rate for someone at a lesser club, who isn't a regular. In fact, a goal every two league games is slightly better than Lukaku has managed so far on his return to Chelsea.
Furthermore, Broja's four league goals have earned Southampton six points this season, and he's yet to score a goal that doesn't earn the Saints either a win or a draw; he's the man for the big occasion, and he scores important goals.
Taking 2.4 shots P90, Broja is the right profile of player for Southampton, and it's no surprise he's slotted in seamlessly. His form for Vitesse was a foundation, and he's built on that so far this term.
Is he ready for Chelsea?
Despite that form, there's an indication that he isn't ready for Chelsea's first-team. To start with, if he wasn't affiliated with the Blues, his goal-scoring record wouldn't be enough to attract them, and neither would his small sample size.
Broja needs to turn into a regular in the second-half of the season if he wants any chance of returning to Chelsea for the 2022/23 campaign.
However, his physical size, and talent level would be enough for Chelsea. Of course, his end product needs to improve, but Trevoh Chalobah, for example, has proven that Cobham graduates are able to make the step up to the first-team and perform immediately under Tuchel.
How big a role would he play back at Chelsea next season?
No matter how well he performs in the back-end of this season, Broja won't be Chelsea's starting centre-forward next campaign.
Lukaku was signed for £100 million for a reason, and he'll be the designated striker for the foreseeable future. However, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz have failed to impress since arriving on English shores, so the Albanian could feasibly play a role of back-up to Lukaku.
That may seem far-fetched, but if he impresses Tuchel, then Broja has every chance of being involved in the squad next year.
However, another loan spell, this time to a better side, is likely to be the option Chelsea choose to take, before deciding on his future at the club in 2023.
