Analysis, features, news plus more – on European football and sports galore!
Having begun pre-season training last week after his Euro 2024 exertions with eventual semifinalists Netherlands, Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk made his club return during their 4-1 friendly win over La Liga side Sevilla and insisted he has confidence the Reds will make signings before the window closes next month – Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi is a priority target. Continue reading “van Dijk confident signings will come as Liverpool’s Zubimendi pursuit continues”
Bournemouth have sold their top goalscorer Dominic Solanke, a week before the start of the new Premier League campaign, after Tottenham’s club-record transfer offer satisfied expensive terms for Ange Postecoglou’s top summer target. The 26-year-old was unveiled before a pre-season defeat by Bayern, where longtime striker and all-time marksman Harry Kane ventured in 2023. Continue reading “Tottenham unveil Postecoglou’s prime target Solanke in club-record £65m move”
Keen for attacking reinforcements, Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham want a striker and winger this summer. Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke, who scored 19 league goals last season, is of interest – but has three years left on his existing contract and won’t be easy to prize away with just two weeks to go before the new campaign begins as they look to replace their Harry Kane void. Continue reading “Report: Tottenham exploring move for Bournemouth striker Dominic Solanke”
Nathan Redmond scored a brace and assisted another as Southampton booked their FA Cup semi-final berth for the second time in four seasons, easing past Jonathan Woodgate’s Bournemouth. Supposed to be a welcome distraction from Championship rigours, the gulf in quality was clear – it would’ve been worse for the Cherries, had VAR not disallowed two goals. Continue reading “Bournemouth 0-3 Southampton: Ruthless Redmond propels Saints into FA Cup semis”
Dan Gosling’s brilliant late overhead lob ensured a dilligent Bournemouth display confined Chelsea to a fourth Premier League defeat in their last five matches, as Frank Lampard’s men struggled while failing to create many chances during another forgettable result. Continue reading “Chelsea 0-1 AFC Bournemouth: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis”
A sublime free-kick strike from Arsenal’s Reiss Nelson, currently on-loan at Hoffenheim, was the standout strike as England under-21s extended their unbeaten run to 35 qualifiers with a 2-0 win over Scotland yesterday.
First-half goals from Mohamed Salah, an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain wonderstrike and Sadio Mané’s header secured a much-needed Champions League first leg victory for Liverpool against Premier League leaders Manchester City – who were lacklustre and uncharacteristically poor under the lights at Anfield.
Continue reading “Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City: First-half blitz stuns lacklustre Citizens”
Their interest was made public early last year but now Nigeria appear to have intensified their attempts to convince talented striker Tammy Abraham into switching allegiances to represent the Super Eagles at senior level. Continue reading “Nigeria’s pursuit of Tammy Abraham is futile: Here’s why”
Continue reading “Ademola Lookman: Arsenal’s loss, Everton’s gain”
The talented young forward in question, is none other than Chelsea‘s Dominic Solanke. The teenager needs no introduction – having scored 41 goals in all competitions for the respective age groups last term, at just 17-years-of-age.
His goal-scoring prowess, agility, acceleration and strength, not to mention his height, all spell trouble for opposition defences. With this in mind, it was only a matter of time before he made a loan move elsewhere, and he has already impressed at Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie thus far this campaign.
Nine games: four goals, an assist, and plenty more chances created, he’s certainly an exciting prospect and earns his first call-up to the u21 squad, as he normally features for the under-19 team.
As well as him, Tyias Browning has been named in the squad. At 21, he’s gradually starting to make his impact on Roberto Martinez‘ first-team side, and has taken his opportunities when they’ve come, in a defensive-minded position alongside the likes of John Stones and Brendan Galloway in a youthful backline for the Toffees.
Certainly talented, his presence will somewhat soften the blow of losing Liverpool full-back Joe Gomez through a cruciate ligament injury – as he’ll be out of action until the end of the season.
A horrible setback for the teenager, who settled in seamlessly at the Reds following his switch from Charlton in the summer.
Along with Gomez on the sidelines, are Wolves‘ defender Kortney Hause, and Manchester United startlet James Wilson.
So with that in mind – The full squad list, is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Preston, on-loan from Sunderland), Christian Walton (Brighton), Joe Wildsmith (Sheffield Wednesday).
Defenders: Tyias Browning and Brendan Galloway (both Everton) Dominic Iorfa (Wolves), Calum Chambers (Arsenal), Matt Targett (Southampton), Jack Stephens (Middlesbrough, on-loan from Southampton).
Midfielders: Lewis Baker (Vitesse, on-loan from Chelsea), Nathaniel Chalobah (Napoli, on-loan from Chelsea), Jake Forster-Caskey (Brighton), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), James Ward-Prowse (Southampton).
Forwards: Chuba Akpom (Hull, on-loan from Arsenal), Jordon Ibe (Liverpool), Solly March (Brighton), Nathan Redmond (Norwich), Cauley Woodrow (Fulham), Duncan Watmore (Sunderland), Dominic Solanke (Vitesse, on-loan from Chelsea).
Stats and data correct to the 7th of March, 2015:
Chelsea have an abundance of attacking riches in their squad, with the likes of Oscar, Eden Hazard, Willian, Loic Remy, Diego Costa and their January addition Juan Cuadrado all to add into the mix. However, they have many youth startlets closer to home, waiting for their chance to shine in the first-team.
One of those, is 17-year-old forward Dominic Solanke. Born in Reading, Berkshire, with Nigerian heritage, the youngster has flourished and developed significantly over the past two seasons in the Chelsea youth set-up. So much so, that he was named England Men’s Youth Player of The Year for 2014 at the start of 2015, and has represented England at U-16, 17 and U-18 level thus far.
During the 2013-14 season, Solanke managed to score 20 goals in 25 matches for the Chelsea U-18’s, an impressive feat. In doing so, he prompted youth coaches to stand up and take notice, earning a call-up to the U-21’s side where he currently showcases his ability on a weekly basis consistently. In all competitions, he has scored 15 goals and created six assists, in just 18 matches played this season.
STAT: Currently, he is the top scorer in the UEFA Youth League with eight goals in the competition, at the quarter-final stage.
STAT: He is the joint fourth top goalscorer in the U21 Premier League with Newcastle’s Adam Armstrong, having scored seven goals in 11 appearances this season. Ryan Seager, Adil Nabi, Chuba Akpom are the only players who have scored MORE goals than him, but ironically, they’ve all played more matches also.
As a player, especially developing into a world-class one, you tend to have one or two strengths that you hold in high regard, as opposed to the rest of your game. For Solanke, as well as his goal-scoring ability, he has blistering pace to run rings around the defender, as well as attacking flair which adds an unpredictable edge to his bow; you are unsure of what he is going to do next, which he always delivers to devastating effect.
In a star-studded team such as Chelsea’s, it is often hard for players to get the first-team opportunities they need to prove themselves at the highest level. Andre Schurrle, Kevin de Bruyne and even more recently, Mohamed Salah are three prime examples of this; they’ve gone onto pastures new and flourished with the prospect of playing regular football spurring them on to success at their respective clubs (AS and KDB, Wolfsburg; Salah at Fiorentina).
Jose Mourinho named Solanke as a first-team player towards the start of this season, but he is so far yet to start a competitive match for the senior team, something he’ll be eager and raring to do in the coming months. He has been on the substitutes’ bench on numerous occasions, which will do wonders for his confidence and help him experience the rigours of the Premier League, but the collective feeling is that Solanke needs minutes under his belt, whether that be for Chelsea or another club in Europe.
The most feasible option at the moment? Solanke has to be patient it seems, especially with Mourinho’s attacking headache at the moment, the youngster may find chances hard to come by, but his potential and obvious talent are too blatant not to look out for.
Stats, data – all correct to January 9, 2015:
Chelsea’s youth set-up is full of potential, with wonderkids ready to break through into the first-team. So why are most of them being loaned out? Will they get their chance? Read below, for my opinion on the intriguing situation which is currently unfolding at Chelsea.
You could argue that The Blues have an interesting situation on their hands. They have many good young players amongst the U-18’s, U-21’s and other age groups, with some of those players having the potential to force their way into the first-team.
With that being said, Chelsea’s team is strong. They have strength in depth, and unlike most of their title rivals in the league, do not have to make many signings or additions to the squad in respective transfer windows. Obviously, this means that most players will not get as many minutes as they would like; unfortunate for a team in a league trying to pride themselves on having homegrown talent, especially given the criticism of recent years over the sufficient lack of world-class English players.
There have been many different young players that have joined Chelsea, and gone on to flourish elsewhere, with a prime example being Wolfsburg‘s creative midfielder Kevin de Bruyne. The Belgian is still relatively young at age 23, but only made 9 appearances for the first-team, with the majority of them being cameo appearances.
Chelsea signed him back in 2012 from Belgian side Genk, where he was being heralded as a player with potential to be special in the future. They sent him on loan, back to Belgium as well as to Werder Bremen – missing out on his talent.
STAT: De Bruyne has already created 10 assists in the Bundesliga alone so far this season, more than almost every player in the top five European leagues currently, apart from Cesc Fabregas, who has 14 at Chelsea – ironically enough.
He joined Wolfsburg in January 2014, and has looked a completely different player. One that plays with costlessdom and has the confidence to prove his doubters wrong, as well as Mourinho – he is a good player who should have been given a better opportunity to showcase his abilities in the first-team.
However, you could also spin the argument, and say that the fee brought in from the de Bruyne transfer shows that The Blues have an efficient way of selling on players that they know will not be able to gain first-team experience in the squad. They signed him for £7million, and sold him for £17million just two years later; a massive amount of profit which could help them in the future to ensure they keep in line with the Financial Fair Play rules and regulations.
The picture below (source: Wikipedia) just shows the sheer scale of players out on loan from Chelsea at the moment – the majority of which, are all young and under the age of 23:
Lucas Piazon, 20, has been compared to by current Chelsea first-team star Oscar amongst other Brazilian compatriots for his attacking flair, pace, skill and being a costless-kick specialist. With that being said, he has barely featured for his parent club – instead, being loaned out to the likes of Vitesse and Frankfurt. He has already admitted that he is open to staying in Germany, so what does that tell you?
Thorgan Hazard, 21 has been praised for having similiar attributes to his older brother, Eden, who is a star player in the first-team. He is currently on-loan at Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga, but will he get his chance eventually following his move in 2012 or find himself on a different pathway to his sibling?
It is all well and good, to have a world-class youth system. But if you do not utilise your youth players and give them chances to shine, then what is the point? To say, that Chelsea do not give some of their talented players a chance amongst the stars in the team, is unfair. Defensive partnership Kurt Zouma and Nathan Aké have been tipped for world stardom, and have played cameos in the side following impressive spells in the youth set-up and elsewhere.
Dominic Solanke, a 17-year-old English striker of Nigerian descent, has starred for the youth squad and earned himself a call-up to their UEFA Champions League group stage squad against NK Maribor towards the end of last year.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, 18, received a huge welcome onto the Champions League scene, as he played ten minutes in their 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon in December.
All of these youth startlets have been tipped for glory and success in the future. It is exciting to see how they develop and excel amongst the youth ranks. But, it is important not to forget that these are just a FEW of the many amongst the current crop at Stamford Bridge who are waiting patiently for a game. Will they get it? That’s the major question.
Mo and Sports 