Chelsea staff are excited by teenage prospect who they think is similar to Reece James

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There is huge excitement within the Chelsea building regarding one of their exciting young talents.

The Chelsea academy continues to be a production line for so many rising stars, which is great news for the first-team squad.

Midway through last season, Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George became the latest academy graduates to become permanent figures in the senior dressing room at Stamford Bridge. It is proof that there is still a route into Enzo Maresca’s plans despite the investment in the transfer market.

Acheampong’s brilliant performance against Liverpool in last weekend’s Premier League win shows that Cobham is still producing future stars as well.

• READ MORE: Every Chelsea youngster on international duty, including 10-goal striker and U21s hero

Shumaira Mheuka is exciting Chelsea staff

Chelsea prospect Shumaira Mheuka, 17, looks like a young talent with a very bright future ahead of him.

The teenage striker has already made six senior appearances in his career with Chelsea, including in a Carabao Cup tie against Lincoln City this season. In terms of youth football, he’s scored 10 goals in nine games so far this campaign.

According to The Evening Standard, Chelsea staff are ‘very optimistic’ about Mheuka in the future.

Apparently, the English centre-forward is involved in senior training more than most of the academy talents that link up with Maresca’s group when they are short on numbers.

The report adds that Mheuka is seen as a similar character to club captain Reece James because of the way he leads by example. He’s described as a youngster who’s polite around the training ground but with a noticeable confidence.

Even though Mheuka started out as a centre-back as a kid, he’s now developed into a clinical striker who captains the Under-21s team.

The striker situation at Chelsea

If Chelsea want an in-form striker to consider, Mheuka couldn’t be doing much more for the U21s side. Therefore, it would be great for him to get some more first-team minutes as the season progresses.

Blues striker Liam Delap was ruled out for 10-12 weeks, dealing a hammer blow to the squad.

For now, Joao Pedro retains the position as the starting number nine, but he’s not scored since the end of August. The positive news is that Marc Guiu finally played some minutes off the bench against Liverpool, so perhaps the young frontman can feature more regularly after the international break.

It is so vital that Chelsea’s forwards are chipping in with goals, especially when Cole Palmer is out.