Chelsea youngster Alfie Gilchrist claims he’s received big help in first-team training this week from Thiago Silva.
With several Blues stars away on international duty, some young talents from the Blues academy have been in training at Cobham with high-profile individuals.
Thiago Silva, who’s 38, is a veteran defender that everyone in the squad at Stamford Bridge must look up to.
The £110k-a-week (Spotrac) Brazilian centre-back has done it all in his career, so it’s a golden opportunity for youngsters to pick his brain when they join in with the seniors.
Alfie Gilchrist, who’s only 19, is a highly-rated teenage centre-half.
He’s expressed his joy about working alongside Silva this week at Chelsea.
“Thiago Silva definitely is seen as a role model and even yesterday I was getting advice from him as well in training,” Gilchrist told Chelsea’s official website.
“Telling midfielders or players to move out your space so that you can have more time on the ball, to pick out the passes you want.”
There’s a long list of talented centre-backs on Chelsea’s books right now, but we’ve got high hopes for Gilchrist moving forwards.
It would be great for the Under-21s star to get some first-team minutes out on loan before a proper senior breakthrough.
We’ve yet to see him make a competitive first-team debut. Has he done enough to catch Mauricio Pochettino’s eye, though?
Levi Colwill’s introduction to the senior squad this season proves that Cobham is still producing some of the very best youngsters around.