Barcelona set up academy next door to Chelsea

zocoss SG

The Spanish giants are setting up camp at the school attended by the kids of several Blues stars.

And former Barca defender Julio Alberto, who is heading the expansion into England, claims he doesn't care if Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has problems with the plan.

Barca are holding coaching classes for 300 children aged six to 16 beginning in April at the ACS school in Cobham, which is less than two miles from Chelsea's training ground.

And Alberto said: "The fact we are near Chelsea is not an issue. If there is any surprise I will explain it to Abramovich myself."

Barcelona academy coach Xevi Marce added: "We are going to start slowly but surely to build a team here, train all the kids and get that passion."

Asromanista2001 SG

why never set up in S'pore ???

our ASS-League is world class leh....................

The man who was death SG

later got more cases of fabregas poaching then they know...

zocoss SG

Now they are going to poach London big time... lol...

Of all place set up next to Chelsea... Later parents bring their kid to the academy then stop in the middle, look left Chelsea, look right Barcelona's... which one to choose... lol.

CKeer SG

Chelsea youth Academy? Do they even need one?

Lets take a look at the up and coming youngsters:

Fabio Borini - from Bologna youth team

Daniel Sturridge - from Man City

Nemanja Matic - from Red Star Belgrade youth team

Conor Clifford - from Crumlin United youth team

Patrick van Aanholt - from PSV youth team

Jeffery Bruma - from Feyernoord youth team

Gael Kakuta - from Lens youth team (We all know his story)

Jacob Mellis - from Sheffield United youth team

Danny Philliskirk - from Leeds United youth team

Matej Delac - from Inter Zapresic youth team

Ben Gordon - from Leeds United youth team

Tomas Kalas - from Sigma Olomouc youth team

Slobodan Rajkovic - from OFK Beograd youth team

Total : 13

The recent youth players who have came through the rank of Chelsea Academy: (Read the underlined keyword. I know Terry is too.)

Josh McEachran

Michael Mancienne

Rhys Taylor

Jack Cork

Total : 4

Oh and by the way, all of them are out on loan except for Borini and McEachran. And Ancelotti brought in new players instead of playing the youngsters and Chelsea is still short in reserve!

CKeer SG

Now they are going to poach London big time... lol...

Of all place set up next to Chelsea... Later parents bring their kid to the academy then stop in the middle, look left Chelsea, look right Barcelona's... which one to choose... lol.

Therefore, I think Parents would rather send their kids to Barcelona's Academy instead of Chelsea's for better chance in progressing through the ranks.

The only minus point is probably because Barcelona is based in Spain and Chelsea is a domestic club. Should the child be picked to progress further up, the only way is to head to Spain.

Rock^Star SG

are people like abramovich really interested in football or pure opportunists? Me thinks the latter. It's be interesting to see how he reacts if chelsea comes 5th this season.

Y_Shun SG

Products from the Chelsea youth team doesnt means they can make it to the mark...

Furthermore alot of these youngsters wants to play week in week out when they are ripe and hence majority of them already left Chelsea. And yes - I agree Ancelotti is not giving youngsters a fair chance to have a shot...

The Chelsea management also has a weird behaviour of isolating youngsters and forcing them to leave the club if they do not sign a new contract with Chelsea. - E.g Borini - being isolated at reserves and Ancelotti ordered not to select him for first team!

If your point is that these youngsters orignated from other academy..I think u should also look at some of the Arsenal, Liverpool, RM academy players as well...many big teams are doing such things to. If u look at the Barcelona B team also can see majority of them had their youth career started elsewhere.

Y_Shun SG

are people like abramovich really interested in football or pure opportunists? Me thinks the latter. It's be interesting to see how he reacts if chelsea comes 5th this season.

Bear in mind that Chelsea is undergoing a rebuilding...

Expect to see some old legs out next summer...