There are so many former talented Chelsea youngsters impressing at various football clubs right now, and one of them could be on the move for a bargain transfer price.
The Chelsea academy deserves so much praise for the amount of brilliant players they’ve developed over the years. In particular, the Blues youth system has provided a continuous production line of quality youngsters in the last decade.
It’s obvious that so many individuals have had to go elsewhere to progress their first-team careers, though.
Chelsea youngster Harvey Vale is about to join QPR permanently, so perhaps he’s the next Cobham academy graduate to carve out success for themselves away from Stamford Bridge.
He impressed Frank Lampard on debut and now former Chelsea wonderkid is moving for just £1.5m
Brighton defender Tariq Lamptey, 24, is a former Chelsea wonderkid with roots going back to the Blues academy.
Lamptey developed with Chelsea since the age of eight, which eventually led to him make a first-team debut for the club aged 19 in 2019. Unfortunately, he was sold to Premier League rivals Brighton just a month later.
Lampaty’s Chelsea debut was quite memorable because he came off the bench to help them win 2-1 away to Arsenal in the Premier League. Incidentally, Frank Lampard was the Blues manager at the time who handed him his first ever senior appearance.
Lampard hailed Lamptey after the quality of his Chelsea debut. He said: ”We felt it was the right time to bring him into the game and he was a catalyst because we were getting down the sides and he gave us a little bit more of an edge… It was a great example of someone coming on a bit fearless and sometimes you get that with youth.”
Lamptey has gone on and made 114 first-team appearances in Brighton colours. He’s now linked with a move away from the Amex Stadium in the January window, though.
The Daily Mail reports that Brighton full-back Lamptey is about to join Dutch giants Ajax for a cut-price fee worth £1.5m. It feels like a sensational bit of business for the Eredivisie club, even though the player’s contract is expiring at the end of the season.
Chelsea have their new version of Tariq Lamptey
Lamptey is one of several academy stars sold to sign by Chelsea, but his career has kicked on in Brighton and it sounds like he’ll soon be in Amsterdam playing for mega club Ajax.
Fortunately, the Blues keep developing rising stars in their Under-21s. In fact, they promoted both Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George from the U21s to the senior squad earlier this season.
We certainly see similarities between 18-year-old defender Acheampong and a younger Lamptey. Fortunately, the former has signed a new contract at Stamford Bridge and has been integrated into the main group by Enzo Maresca.
In the current Chelsea group, we definitely see a place for Acheampong to play and develop.
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