Dele Alli, Jadon Sancho and Joe Gomez have represented Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Manchester United and Liverpool in their careers so far.
For some, such as Joe Gomez, he is still thriving in the colours of Liverpool after winning the League Cup on Sunday, whilst Jadon Sancho is still on Manchester United’s books, but is currently out on loan at Borussia Dortmund.
And Dele Alli spent several years at Tottenham, where he became a firm fan favourite, and is now at Everton where he hasn’t featured in 12 months.
But before these players made high-profile moves to some of English football’s biggest clubs, it could have been different for them because Chelsea were looking at them as teenagers, according to a former scout.
Chris Robinson told Rising Ballers on Instagram about how he looked at signing them, but didn’t deem them good enough, comments which haven’t sat well with a certain Ian Wright.
The Arsenal legend wasn’t happy with how a man, part of Chelsea’s scouting for many years, was talking about those players by telling him in the comments section of the Rising Ballers IG post, ‘you were wrong’ and how ’they all made it’.
From claiming, at the time, then-MK Dons star Dele Alli wasn’t better than Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lewis Baker, how he ‘didn’t think Joe Gomez was a great footballer’ at Charlton and teenager Jadon Sancho, then at Watford, was ‘just okay’.
Dele Alli, Joe Gomez and Jadon Sancho’s careers
“The players were Dele Alli, who I saw when he was playing first-team football for MK Dons when he was about 17,” said the ex-Chelsea scout.
“I didn’t feel he was better than we already had at Chelsea in Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Lewis Baker. Now, was I right? Yes, I was at the time. Lots of clubs and lots of other scouts at Chelsea came to the same conclusion, so it wasn’t just me.
“Joe Gomez, when he was at Charlton. I think about 16 or 17 years of age. I thought he was a good athlete. I didn’t think he was a great footballer. He’s gone on and done okay, hasn’t he?!
“And Jadon Sancho. I saw Jadon when he was 14 playing as a striker for Watford. I thought he was alright. No, he’s just okay.
“Interestingly, Joe Gomez isn’t a regular in the Liverpool team. Dele Alli isn’t playing top level necessarily now and Jadon Sancho can’t get a game at United. So, maybe I wasn’t as daft as I felt like I was at the time, I don’t know.”
Ian Wright then responded: “You were wrong. (They) all made it and played at big clubs and (for) England. Trying to justify poor decisions.”
Academy football is ruthless
Perhaps the tone or manner in which the ex-Chelsea scout is talking is wrong. He needs to remember someone like Gomez is very much a crucial player for Jurgen Klopp.
But academy football and the calls that are made at that level aren’t made to please people. It can be brutally ruthless.
Young kids want that professional contract, many are fed dreams that 98% are never going to reach, so you have to be ruthless in your thinking.
For some, they get knocked down and never recover. But others use it as fuel to prove themselves elsewhere, like Declan Rice did at West Ham United when Chelsea let him go.
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