October 2nd 2023.
Frank Lampard is surprised by Chelsea's decision to offload so many of the players he coached during his first spell in charge of the Blues. Despite the difficult period he had to manage, Lampard leaned heavily on the club's talented academy players and was able to bring through a host of young players in his first season.
Unfortunately, only one of those players, Reece James, is still at Stamford Bridge and the other academy graduates, such as Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Billy Gilmour and many others have all now left the club.
Lampard had expected the academy players he helped develop to form the foundations of Chelsea's squad for years to come and is surprised that so many have left. He did not expect Fikayo Tomori to leave, but recognises it is difficult to keep young players happy and that some of them may have lost interest in staying.
When shown a graphic of all the youngsters who played under him and have now left the club, Lampard commented: “I think if you look across that list I’m slightly surprised by it. I would have expected more players to stay longer. Every player in there is a different story and sometimes you read between the lines.”
Lampard believes having players that have come through the academy is a great thing for the fans to have a connection with. He understands that good players are needed for success, but at the same time he believes these academy graduates could have been the foundation of the club's squad for many years.
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