Arsenal
Aston Villa
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Everton
Fulham
Leeds United
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Newcastle United
Nottingham Forest
Southampton
Tottenham Hotspur
West Ham United
Wolverhampton Wanderers
News
‘Chelsea thought’: Liam Brady says Chelsea didn’t think ‘phenomenal’ Arsenal player was any good
Being a youth coach in football must be one of the hardest jobs in the game.
If you coach a player who makes it to the top, they’re often hailed for having this natural talent and you don’t get the credit, but if you let a future superstar leave before they reach their potential you are derided as a footballing fool.
Chelsea have lost their fair share of young talents from their academy over the years – most notably Declan Rice, but another player they let go was Eddie Nketiah.
The striker was released by Chelsea as a youngster before Arsenal picked him up, and one man who was vital in that process was Liam Brady.
Speaking on the , Brady spoke about Nketiah and his journey to the Arsenal first-team, and he noted that Chelsea really didn’t rate the striker when he was released.
Chelsea didn’t rate Nketiah
Brady shared what he knows about how Chelsea viewed the ‘‘ striker.
“We worked to create a process where we had great facilities and organisation for the boys. Many of them are in the first-team now, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah we got him from Chelsea and Chelsea thought he wasn’t that good. Apart from Eddie, the others have been at the club since they were eight or nine,” Brady said.
Wrong call
It has to be said that Chelsea made the wrong call here.
There’s an argument to be made that Nketiah would be an asset in the Chelsea team right now, but even if he weren’t to be a part of Mauricio Pochettino’s squad at this point, he’d be worth a lot more to Chelsea now than he would’ve when he was released as a kid.
Whether or not you rate him as a player, you can’t deny that Nketiah is now a multi-milliion pound asset, and he would’ve been worth keeping on at Chelsea one way or another.