When it actually happened, any best laid plans Alfie Gilchrist had made to celebrate his first senior Chelsea goal went flying out the window. Considering half his life had been building up to this moment, you might have assumed there would be some elaborate routine planned, but the 20-year-old settled for trying, and at one point failing, to keep all his limbs functioning.
As Gilchrist held himself upright against the Shed End hoardings, attempting to be both simultaneously in the stands and on the pitch, the importance of having academy graduates in this Chelsea side became glaringly obvious.
Gilchrist is a third-generation season ticket holder at Stamford Bridge who has been at the club for a decade, brought up in nearby Kingston upon Thames. When he was a child, his dad created a Championship Manager played called Alfie Gilchrist who played for Chelsea, and what was once a pipe dream is now reality.
In a game of unforgettable moments at Stamford Bridge, from Cole Palmer’s perfect hat-trick inside 30 minutes to the petulant penalty scrap, Gilchrist’s goal may well live longest in the memories of those inside Stamford Bridge.
He reacted exactly how any fan inside the stadium would in his position: this was raw, wild, unadulterated passion, a memory to recall as you lay on your deathbed. He was both one of them and one of us, something even Wythenshawe-born Palmer, for all his revolutionary talent, will never be.
“People often ask, what does Chelsea mean to you?” Gilchrist said to the club website after signing a contract extension until 2025 earlier this month. “Well, put it this way. If I wasn’t playing, I’d probably be in the stands with you. Side by side, cheering the boys on. You see, this is my club.”
To a Chelsea side who have never felt so distanced from their fans, with outright mutiny only dispelled at points this season by overwhelming apathy, moments like Gilchrist’s goal are more valuable than both of the hotels they have sold to themselves.
Gilchrist was one of three long-term academy products who featured against Everton, with Conor Gallagher and Trevoh Chalobah starting.
Yet Gallagher is increasingly likely to leave west London in the summer as a contract dispute rattles on, while a cynic might say that Chalobah’s recent run of appearances is really only to increase his value for a sale. In the wider squad, captain Reece James has started six games all season due to injury, while other Cobham graduates like Ian Maatsen, Armando Broja and Lewis Hall are on loan ahead of inevitable exits this summer.
This will leave the number of academy products in Chelsea’s first team at its lowest this century. Cobham is in rude health as it stands – the Blues beat Wolves 3-1 to win this U17 Premier League Cup just last week – but that is at grave risk.
Against Everton, Mauricio Pochettino named six players under 23 on the bench. Three of these have been signed under the Boehly/ Clearlake regime, while three were “true” academy products.
All three of the recent signings got time on the pitch – Cesare Casadei, Deivid Washington and Carney Chukwuemeka – while Gilchrist only came on with two minutes to go. There now appears to be a blockage in the traditional academy pathway, created by signing a significant number of players aged 18-20. Even then, the club’s handling of Casadei and Andrey Santos has raised eyebrows since both signed last summer.
If you are Tyrique George or Kiano Dyer, who joined Chelsea at seven and 13 respectively, you have to wonder that if you are not coming off the bench at 5-0 up, when will you? If you are going to prioritise young players, which Chelsea have clearly done, why not the young players already at the club?
Gilchrist demonstrates this better than most. By his own admission, he has never been the most talented player in the age groups, but his passion and intelligence have made him stand out in the few senior opportunities he has been afforded. Playing for Chelsea simply means more to him than it would to most non-academy products and he understands what it means to represent the club.
Gilchrist’s idol is perhaps unsurprisingly John Terry, who coached him at Cobham and the pair are still in regular contact. Terry, who you imagine is the inspiration for young Gilchrist’s shaved head, has called him a “really, really good player”.
If Chelsea were to sell Gilchrist in a year or two, or even this summer with PSR penalties looming, they would lose yet another connection to both their past and their fanbase. Had PSR been in place when Terry came through the academy, he may well have been moved on in the pre-Abramovich era too.
Palmer is showing Pep Guardiola the dangers of selling promising young players, as his four goals on Monday took him level with Erling Haaland at the top of the Golden Boot standings.
Whether it’s George, Dyer, Ronnie Stutter, Leo Castledine – who has nine goals and nine assists in 17 PL2 appearances this season – Josh Acheampong or Donnell McNeilly, Chelsea may well have a Palmer or two of their own already in-house.
Chelsea still have one of the finest academies in world football, as Rio Ngumoha’s wondergoal and Frankie Runham’s brace highlighted against Wolves last week in the U17s.
By maintaining a solid connection to this in the long term, the club buy themselves leeway on the pitch and the easiest marketing tactic possible, not to mention cost-free players who will go above and beyond on the pitch and have been educated in the club’s ethos.
Gilchrist’s goal was an unforgettable one for Chelsea fans and for him. Todd Boehly, Behdad Eghbali and Pochettino would do well to appreciate the value of those moments and work to create as many as possible.
