Palmer and Delap are among five academy players who learnt their trade at City, as links between the clubs grow
C
helsea’s visit to Manchester City on Sunday will be a homecoming for members of the travelling party. Five Chelsea players were nurtured at the academy that sits a few hundred yards from the Etihad Stadium, on the other side of a bridge.
The London club’s recent recruitment has been heavily influenced by City’s teaching of players and coaches. Tosin Adarabioyo, Cole Palmer, Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens and Roméo Lavia were members of City’s youth ranks, most working there under Enzo Maresca. If one thread was unpicked this week when Maresca dramatically departed Chelsea, the link remains strong because Sunday’s caretaker, Calum McFarlane, was formerly the under-18s assistant manager at City.
Palmer and Delap won the FA Youth Cup with City in 2020, defeating Chelsea in the final alongside Morgan Rogers, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Oscar Bobb and James McAtee. “We had so many unbelievable players,” says their former City teammate Ben Knight. “When you’ve got that many top, top players, you just feel like you’re never going to lose. And we had a season at under-23s after we won the Youth Cup [when] we were just ridiculous, even when we played against the men’s teams in the Papa Johns [Trophy]. I don’t really remember ever losing.”
