COME ON CHELSEA

By Since66
July 13 2010

For me the signing of 30 year old Yossi Benayoun was a strange one. Thirty years of age and on a four-year deal after releasing Joe Cole did twist the mind a little, however the boss 'Anco' sorted out the twistedness when he said on welcoming Benayoun to the club, 'Yossi can play in any position,' and this could have been the major factor in Joey's departure.

Good luck Yossi and welcome to Chelsea.

Chelsea have been very busy this Summer tying down eight Academy players on to their first full professional contracts.

Six of the eight, including Josh McEachran, who was instrumental in last season's FA Youth Cup win and England's U17 European Championship win in May, have signed their first contracts.

Since returning for pre-season training, young Josh, who is very highly rated, has been training with the first team and he says, "Since I have been back I've been training with the first team which is really good, and hopefully I can on from here.

"The atmosphere here has been friendly, everyone have been nice to me and speaking to me, and everybody is happy to be back at Cobham.

"I thought it would be a lot harder but it's been alright so far, the fitness has been fine and I hope I can be involved in pre-season. The game against Crystal Palace is coming up on Saturday, and hopefully I can be involved with that, and then this season I really want to make my debut."

Carry on playing football Josh and I am sure your time will come sooner rather than later. starting off at Palace on Saturday.

The full list of first-year Professionals:

Aziz Deen-Conteh
Billy Clifford
Rohan Ince
George Saville
James Ashton
Milan Lalkovic
Philipp Prosenik
Josh McEachran

As well as signing the above, six players have left the club, after featuring regularly for the Reserve and Academy teams.

The players released are:

Niclas Heimann
Aldi Haxhia
Nana Ofori-Twumasi
Nikki Ahamed
Liam Bridcutt
Kenny Strickland

Goalkeeper Nic Heimann has signed for Red Star Salzburg of Austria and Nana has signed a three-year deal at League One Peterborough.

At the time of writing, the other youngsters are still looking for clubs, and we wish them good luck