Chelsea - Youth On Internationals

The international breaks, perhaps rightly so, get their fair share of negative press. None more so than in the week that Chelsea have lost John Terry, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack to injuries sustained on international duty.

However, as ever here at Vital Chelsea, we like to provide a fair and balanced analysis, looking at both sides of the argument. And the one good aspect to be derived from this international break is the success of some of our youngsters out on national duty.

It's been a fairly decent weekend for the majority of our prominent youth products. Fabio Borini made his debut for the Italy Under-21s, managed by a certain Pierluigi Casiraghi (remember him?!). At the ripe old age of just 18, Borini was introduced as a half time substitute in Hungary, although couldn't prevent the Italians going down 2-0.

Elsewhere, Jeffrey Bruma, the defender who made his first team Chelsea debut a couple of weeks back in the 5-0 home win over Blackburn, continued his international development for the Dutch Under-21s. Also at just eighteen years of age, on his landmark birthday in fact, Bruma helped the Netherlands to a 3-0 home win against Liechtenstein, making it four wins out of four for them in their Euros qualifying group.

Continuing on the postive international theme, it was great to see Gael Kakuta with his boots back on, playing in his first competitive game since FIFA handed him down a draconian playing ban. After the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended all rulings on the case until their appeal is heard, expected to be in the new year, Kakuta is now free to actually play some football, and got his career back on track with appearances against Greece and Poland in a friendly tournament for the French Under-19s. I'm sure we're not the only ones who can't wait to see Gael pull on the blue of Chelsea once again.

Also worth a mention are Conor Clifford, who figured for the Republic of Ireland Under-19s in their 5-0 win over San Marino; Jacopo Sala, representing the Italian Under-19s, who starred in a 5-0 win of his own, against Albania; and Jan Sebek, the goalkeeper, who made his debut for the Czech Republic Under-19s in a 3-1 win over Cyprus.

All in all, a very good weekend for our youngsters away representing their countries, and undoubtedly an important step for them all in the development of their young careers.

However, it wasn't quite as good a weekend back at home, where the remaining youth players, and a few dropping back down from reserve team level, were found wanting against West Ham.

A poor performance and 3-1 defeat was made all the more worse by a sending-off for Billy Knott, the promising left back, who let his temper get the better of him, and was sent off for dissent. The defender could now be suspended for three matches, and is in danger of missing the start of the FA Youth Cup campaign next month.

The Blues were second best throughout, in difficult windy conditions, and two goals from Robert Hall either side of the break effectively killed the game.

Marko Mitrovic pulled one back, but Conor Okus put the game to bed with ten minutes remaining after further poor defending.

Youth team manager Dermot Drummy summarised,

'Billy Knott was against his old club and I spoke to him before the game about the need to keep composed.'

'He has to learn from his errors. We don't know if it is a one or three-match ban yet and with the FA Youth Cup coming up, he could learn the hard way.'

'For the first time this season we didn't control the game. Last week I was not happy when we won but that was due to sloppy play. This week it was making the wrong decisions and being technically poor.'

'We tried to play our football on a very windy day but against a team that pressured well, our first and second touches weren't the standard required. Tactically we didn't find enough space.'

'It was a very disappointing result because we had a number of players who played in the reserves and they came down and didn't perform.'

Elsewhere, to finish the round-up on a slightly more positive note, our Ladies team smashed Everton's 100% record this campaign in a 5-3 victory, which takes them to the top of the table. Goals from Dunia Susi (2), Lianne Sanderson, Eartha Pond and Shelby Hills put the Toffees to the sword. Next up for the girls is a visit from Bristol Academy on Thursday.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.