Football
Liam Twomey, Chelsea correspondent 7y

Antonio Conte defends his record of using young Chelsea players

LONDON -- Antonio Conte said that he was happy to hear about Nathaniel Chalobah's first England call-up but insisted that the youngsters who left Chelsea this summer are not ready to play for the club.

Chalobah, who joined Watford in a permanent deal reportedly worth £7 million in July, was included along with the uncapped Harry Maguire and Jordan Pickford in Gareth Southgate's 28-man squad ahead of World Cup qualifiers against Malta and Slovakia next month.

Of last season's Premier League title-winning Chelsea squad, fellow youngsters Nathan Ake, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ola Aina and Kurt Zouma were also allowed to leave either permanently or on loan by Conte, having struggled for regular opportunities under the Italian last season.

Tammy Abraham, Kasey Palmer and Izzy Brown were granted Premier League loans after Chelsea decided against recalling them to bolster a small first-team squad, while Dominic Solanke joined Liverpool in search of a senior breakthrough after running down the final year of his contract on the sidelines last season.

But when questioned on his attitude towards youth development, Conte insisted that he has no problem with putting his faith in youngsters if they prove themselves ready to play for Chelsea.

"I'm very happy for him," he said of Chalobah. "Very happy. He worked a lot and very hard last season, and I wish him the best.

"Sometimes there are football dynamics outside that you can't see. Sometimes you can't understand. I have to understand.

"Last season Chalobah played some games, Loftus-Cheek played some games, Ake played the semifinal of the FA Cup, Aina in the League Cup and Kenedy, too.

"If young players stay and play regularly with Chelsea, the question is this: Manchester City and other clubs, are there players from the academy playing regularly? I don't know.

"If there are young players who deserve to play regularly and give me a good feeling, then why not? I put [Paul] Pogba at 18 into the team [at Juventus], for [Claudio] Marchisio. Not a simple player [to replace].

"But you must have this type of possibilities, players who are ready to play regularly with Chelsea, a great team. Otherwise it's very difficult to make this decision.

"You must decide if you want to fight for the title or develop your young players. Two different ways."

Asked if it is possible to develop young players while competing for major trophies, Conte replied: "If the young players are ready and are strong enough to play regularly. Pogba, I repeat, played at 18 for me. Why not this?

"Show me young players who deserve to play regularly for Chelsea, and I'm ready to pick them. Don't forget my first game in Serie A, I was only 16. 16. I'm the first person open to do this because another coach did this with me. But, I repeat, you must have the possibilities to do this. Not to invent [them].

"[Marcus] Rashford. That's one player now who has shown he is strong physically, fast technically, and a really good player. But it's not easy.

"Now [Andreas] Christensen, after two seasons on loan to develop himself in Germany, stays with us. He has to fight with [David] Luiz, [Gary] Cahill, Azpi [Cesar Azpilicueta], [Antonio] Rudiger to play. But if there is the possibility to play, I'll put him in.

"I'm the first to be ready to do this. But it's very important the young players are ready to play. Otherwise you provoke damage to the players. Also to the club and the team."

Wayne Rooney will be a key threat when Chelsea face Everton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, having scored in each of his first two Premier League appearances since returning to his boyhood club from Manchester United in the summer.

United paid £27m to sign Rooney in the summer of 2004, two seasons after he first made his mark on the Premier League as a prodigious 16-year-old at Everton, and Conte insisted that he would have been granted the same opportunities had he come through Chelsea's academy now.

"Yes, for sure," he said. "Rooney showed his potential when he was 17 years old and not only did he keep his level, but he improved it. We're talking about an icon of football in general. But it's not easy to have many Rooneys. It's [rare].

"Young players must be ready, must be good to play with a great team, to play regularly. Usually in this type of football, there is a path for the young players.

"It's very difficult to see players when they are 16, 17, 18 years old playing regularly. And they have to develop and then come back to play regularly with a great team. This is the right way."

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