Former Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo has revealed that one of the club’s ex-managers urged Roman Abramovich to scrap the club’s academy.
Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori have all come through the ranks to establish themselves as regular starters under Frank Lampard, who was in part appointed because of his willingness to use young players.
The trio have all been called up to the senior England squad for upcoming games against the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James, who have also featured under Lampard, are part of the Under 21 squad.
Emenalo, who spent a decade in various roles at Stamford Bridge before leaving in 2017, took responsibility for developing the club’s young players under bosses including Jose Mourinho, Andre Villas-Boas and Antonio Conte.
The manager in question claimed that Chelsea’s academy was too expensive to run and that it should only be used to ‘make some money here and there’.
However, with the help of Abramovich, who has always wanted the club to produce its own first-team players, the ex-Nigeria international ensured that the manager’s plans were ignored, report the Daily Mail.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Emenalo, who also worked at the club during the reigns of Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo, said: ‘I defended the academy when there was pressure and doubt and pessimism.
‘There was a time when there was a clamour to do more and a manager came in to make a presentation to say the academy was not necessary. The argument was it takes too long, we don’t have time, we should use it to make some money here and there, and that the owner should stop pumping money into it because it seemed like a waste.
‘But that wasn’t my idea and I had to fight against it. This is where I am very, very proud of the owner Roman Abramovich because of the trust he had in me and the willingness to listen to me and give the academy time. He would not abandon it. He believed in it and in me, and I can’t thank him enough for that.’
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