Frank Lampard is proud of one thing during his reign at Chelsea – the promotion of youth talents.
Since the Englishman’s return to the club as manager, fans have seen a surprising number of academy talents getting chances in the first team.
This has seen the likes of Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Billy Gilmour, Timo Anjorin and Fikayo Tomori (who is at AC Milan now) make the step up to the senior squad.
The manager told the club’s website: “I’m proud of that.
“I mentioned last year I didn’t want us to become an Academy club, we want to win things, but when I came back here I made the conscious decision to look at the younger players, because we had a good batch, but also give them the opportunity to show they can get in the team.
“That wasn’t something I had to do. People talked about the ban, but Mason Mount got in midfield ahead of seasoned internationals, similarly Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, and Reece James. I trusted in them and then they came and produced in the team, so they should take a lot of credit for that as well.
“Having been here for a long time as a player and seen a lot of young players get towards the first team squad, maybe come and train with us and then not get then opportunity to play, I felt it was a really important thing for players to come through the Academy because they really feel the club.
“That’s a lovely trait to bring into the first team squad, so it’s been a massively positive thing.”
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