Chelsea had an open training session in Sydney last night as they prepare for their Asian tour, and Nizaar Kinsella was there.
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Given that Chelsea aren’t in European football season, we won’t be getting many open training sessions. At least Nizaar Kinsella of the BBC was there in Sydney to take one in as the Blues prepare for their preseason tour.
There are only so many conclusions you can draw from them, in the circumstances. Half the squad aren’t there yet, and the players are still building up physically. But Kinsella did his best to note down the most interesting things he saw.
Youngsters set to play key role
There was a big centre-circle huddle at the start of the ticketed event, then they got to work. There was a rondo, then of course some shooting to send the fans home happy.
“It was notable that Alonso had a large coaching staff working in a well-drilled manner, but there was no preference shown to established stars such as [Cole] Palmer over players such as Reggie Watson and Mahdi Nichol-Jazuli, the two 16-year-olds in the squad,” Kinsella noted.
Those youngsters aren’t just there to make up the numbers. Until the rest of the squad arrive, they’re going to get minutes. We expect both of them to feature in some capacity against Western Sydney Wanderers on Tuesday.
In other news…
Pedro Neto has been one of the better wingers at Chelsea in recent years – not that that’s saying much. But even he has transfer interest this summer.
Chelsea have signed one very expensive attacker this summer already, and another one looks to be on the way.
