Former Chelsea technical director Michael Emenalo has revealed that one of the club’s ex-managers urged Roman Abramovich to scrap the club’s academy.
Emenalo spent a decade in various roles at Stamford Bridge before leaving in 2017 to become the technical director at the struggling club AS Monaco.
There is a lot of positivity surrounding Chelsea this season with several academy graduates getting an opportunity to impress in the first team under Frank Lampard. Chelsea’s youth teams have dominated youth tournaments in recent years but have seldom got opportunities to prove themselves in the first team.
The scene around Stamford Bridge has changed this season with the likes of Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori establishing themselves in the first team.
However, Michael Emenalo has now revealed that it could have been different if an ex-manager had got his way
Speaking to The Telegraph, Emenalo, who also worked at the club during the reigns of Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Di Matteo, said: ‘I defended the academy when there was pressure and doubt and pessimism.
‘There was a time when there was a clamor to do more and a manager came in to make a presentation to say the academy was not necessary. The argument was it takes too long, we don’t have time, we should use it to make some money here and there, and that the owner should stop pumping money into it because it seemed like a waste.
‘But that wasn’t my idea and I had to fight against it. This is where I am very, very proud of the owner Roman Abramovich because of the trust he had in me and the willingness to listen to me and give the academy time. He would not abandon it. He believed in it and in me, and I can’t thank him enough for that.
Chelsea has four players on international duty with the senior England team while Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James, who has also featured under Lampard, are part of the Under 21 squad.
