http://www.chelseafc.com/article.asp?hlid=421515 Spy on Thursday Thursday, Oct 12, 2006 Chelsea's Spy In The Camp has been bringing inside news, banter and comment for 20 years in the matchday programme, on Chelsea TV and now on the web. Today he wonders why the best youth team players haven't developed into the best footballers. Do you know who Mbark Boussoufa is? He's the Belgian Footballer of the Year, playing in the Champions League for Anderlecht having transferred from Gent, and he's a Chelsea youth team product. He joined us in 2002 from Ajax. Like Khaled Boulahrouz, he's a Dutch-Moroccan, but unlike Boula he wanted to play for Morocco. He was signed because of his potential, obviously, and particularly because of his Zola-like qualities. Franco was 36 at the time. But at 8 stone 10 pounds and five feet six inches he was lightweight. He had skills, but was always struggling against the hurly-burly of English football. All the same, in his one season in the youth team he scored 15 goals in 23 starts and one substitute appearance. Size counted against him in the reserves: 10 starts, 11 substitute appearances, no goals. The following season, too old for youth team football, he was a reserve team regular. He set up goals, but didn't score enough. He started 26 games, was a substitute once, and scored five. He was released at the end of the season. The top scorer in the reserves that season, Sebastian Kneissl, is now playing in the third division in Germany. The second top appearance maker after Mbark, Dean Smith, is now playing for Aldershot. They were both retained. Mbark probably would not have made it in England — a comment on our football as much as on him — and he certainly wouldn't register amongst the best youth team players I've seen. But he's beginning to look as though he might turn into one of the best players amongst them. John Terry wouldn't be a youth team player I'd pick out either. He was good, but he only really played one year in the youth team and didn't shine like some who haven't moved up the ladder so quickly have gone on to do. The odd thing is that the real top players in the youth team haven't really made it big time at Chelsea. When I first watched them regularly they had a great side: Frank Sinclair, Eddie Newton, Craig Burley, Graham Stuart, Nathan Blake. All went on to have good careers. But the star and captain was Damian Matthew. A silky-skilled midfielder and a leader, he never reproduced his qualities in the first team. After a reasonable career with us, Crystal Palace, Burnley and Northampton, he became a coach in our Academy and is now Charlton's youth team coach. The next big shot was Neil Shipperley. In 1992/93 he scored 47 goals including one on his full first team debut against Wimbledon. He looked an England centre-forward. But he put on weight, lost pace, and despite the odd first team game of optimism — the winner at home to Liverpool, a wonderful European performance in Vienna — he moved on in 1995 and has had a highly respectable career around the foot of the Premier League and the top of the division below. Now he's at Sheffield United but not playing. Next was Jody Morris. When he was around 17 he destroyed Arsenal in a Youth Cup tie at Highbury. He had more good Chelsea moments than the others, climaxed with his performance at home to Barcelona in the 2000 3-1 Champions League quarter-final win. But his career ebbed away from him, he never became a regular, and moved first to Leeds and is now at Millwall. Next came Leon Knight. Like Boussoufa, he was going to be the next Zola. What skills! But after one substitute first team appearance he was on his way, his skills never being matched by his work. Following a spell at Brighton he moved to Swansea in League One. Carlton Cole. Thirty-eight goals in a season, one on his full debut, but like Shipperley he didn't become a regular and is now well down the pecking order at West Ham. Robert Huth. He was going to be the next John Terry. He was good enough for Germany but couldn't prove he was good enough for Chelsea, so he's gone to Middlesbrough. Meanwhile, Newton scored in an FA Cup Final which we won, Sinclair scored in a League Cup Final which we won, Michael Duberry played in a European final which we won and a UEFA Super Cup game which we won. They were all good youth team players but, like Terry and Boussoufa, not stand-out ones. They succeeded at the highest level. And don't forget Muzzy Izzet. He was an okay youth team player, a bit lightweight like Boussoufa, and then an excellent reserve team player. But he never even progressed to our first team and was sold to Leicester when Roberto Di Matteo arrived. He remains our only youth product to have played in a World Cup semi-final when he was a substitute for Turkey in 2002. So it's not necessarily the obviously best players who progress. Now we have a youth team which has won eight out of eight games, and a reserve team which has won three out of four. There are some players who are beginning to look very good. There are several who have trained with the first team. Jimmy Smith has appeared in the first team. These are exciting times for them. And they are crucial times. Will any of them break through? If one can become a first team regular it would be a breakthrough. We won't know for a few years. But what we do know is it might not be the most obvious talent. The most obvious talents have proved, not necessarily of their own accord, that they can't rest on their laurels. What is different now, with the web and our own TV station, is that supporters can follow them more closely. More supporters can share the disappointments and anticipate the possibilities. The pressures on the youngsters start earlier. Will one, like Boussoufa, who by the way is eight days older than Glen Johnson, receive the patience required? Will others, like so many, not quite manage the final hurdle? A lot of us are watching, boys. Who can deliver? by Spy -- 當我漫遊在斯坦弗森林時，我看見了雀爾西，米爾斯的女兒，在傍晚初升的明月中， 在泰晤士河旁一處林地空間上翩然舞蹈。所有痛苦的記憶都離開了我，我像落入迷離 幻境中一般，因為雀爾西是伊露維塔兒女中最美的一位。她身上那襲藍色的衣裳宛如 萬里無雲的晴空，她灰色的眼睛像是傍晚群星閃爍的天空；她的斗篷上繡著金色的花 朵，她的頭髮漆黑如暮色中的陰影。她的榮光與美好，就像樹葉上的光芒，像是潺潺 流水，像是這迷離世界上方閃爍的繁星；她臉上有閃亮的光輝。 --

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