Emile Heskey on chelsea squad size and top four predictions
Emile Heskey on chelsea squad size and top four predictions - exclusive
18/08/2024
Solar Campus, Wallasey, Wirral, UK
18/08/2024
Solar Campus, Wallasey, Wirral, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00I haven't got 41 players in the first place and how am I supposed to decrease that and keep the
00:06harmony and that's one of the key things as well, keep that harmony, because if me and you are
00:13teammates and we're very close, you're in the bottom squad and I'm over
00:18training, I'm going to feel a bit of a way, so he just needs to make sure he's
00:24keeping that harmony within the squad, but 41 players is a bit of a joke.
00:30When you look at the Chelsea policy since the new role has come in and they talk about signing the best young players and then they'll be worth more money down the line, do you have to pay them?
00:40You're talking about signing the best young players, they've got the best academy,
00:45between them and Man City, who's got a better academy? No one in the country has got a better
00:49academy, so surely they should have that best talent there and when you look up and down the actual
00:55leagues, you see ex-Chelsea players in there, you go to AC Milan, you've got an
01:02ex-Chelsea player there, you go to Roma, you've got an ex-Chelsea player there, so they're actually producing
01:07them, why do they keep having to buy them? That's my only thought process on that, you've got some of
01:13the best players, you're winning the FA Youth Cup, you're winning the leagues, so you know
01:20inevitably you've got the best players in your youth set-up anyway.
01:24Exactly, because a couple of years ago I think they had 45 players out on loan, how many of them actually came back and got a chance to play?
01:34Well that was a different model, that was a different model, so they were actually
01:40bringing a lot of them in very young, playing them, sending them out on loan and then obviously
01:45getting a fee for them, because when you look at Dominic Solanke who's gone to Spurs,
01:51was one of them, he went out on loan, went to different places, got sold to Liverpool
01:56and then got sold on again, now he's a Tottenham player, so you've got all these players that
02:02their model was a little bit different back then, no one can tell me what their model is right now.
02:07Is that the difficulty for young lads, when they break in, they come through and then all of a sudden the club have bought someone at a £50 million price, is the pressure on the club then to play the new players?
02:22No, the pressure will always be on the club to play, the player that they've,
02:26sorry, the pressure will always be on the manager to play the player that
02:32they've brought, they've just bought for a substantial amount, but then it's for you as a
02:37player, because that's a challenge for me as a player to say, well show that I'm better than
02:42that player that you've brought in, or on par, when you get your opportunity you've got to show that,
02:47and it was for me, it was a little bit different for me, because obviously when I came through,
02:52I think we were only allowed four foreign players, and I came through a club that
02:58needed to bring young players through, and we were renowned for that, we had Julian Joachim,
03:02Neil Lewis, all these players that come through, so I'd already seen that pathway,
03:06but then obviously when you get the opportunity you've got to take that, and then if you have
03:10any setbacks you've got to show again, and this is part and parcel of football, this is part and
03:15parcel of life, that you're going to have setbacks, but how do you bounce back from that?
03:21One thing as well, Arsene Wenger said, as a young player you're not just going to have a
03:28consistent season, 30 plus games, you're going to have ups and downs, you've got to be able to
03:33work with that as well. Exactly, and that's patience I think is a key factor. Yeah, 100%
03:39again, and you know what they're capable of as well, so you've got to be patient with them.
03:44Exactly, so what we've got our top four is City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea...