Chelsea edge brave Colchester United youngsters out of the FA Youth Cup (From Gazette)

'Fruit for the future'?

Not that much fruit over the last few seasons - and those who are among the most promising get moved on to Chelmsford City with a view to permanent deals.

Tom Bender appeared to be part of future plans and it's a shame to see him moving on. Bradley Hamilton too by the look of things.

The days when the club could parade half a team of youngsters ( and they did in '72 ) have long gone.

Steve Leslie, Steve Foley and Lindsay Smith were good enough to carve out a career in the game at this level ( and higher ). I doubt very much we will ever see anything like that again.

It would appear to me that the club do not think that too many of the younger players are going to make it, otherwise we would not be seeing such a huge inlfux of loan players.

I think a few of us expected to see the likes of Bender, Hamilton and Ladapo at least on the bench this season, but these players seem to have faded into the background.

And just for the record - the debut of Steve Foley against Exeter City in the years I refer to. Two goals for Steve and a shimmering display at Layer Road that had the fans cheering his name well before the end of the first half.

Steve soon showed us how good he was in the air too by coming in at the near post for those quick in-swinging corners from Mick Mahon - scoring and laying on goals for others for those hallmark back-flick headers that won us matches.

The trouble is you don't know just how good this group of Chelsea youngsters are, because although they won the cup last season, this team won't be the same. Also. unfortunately, if we have talented players likely to make the grade, they will be snatched by the bigger clubs for next to nothing. I really don't see how developing youngsters now is likely to benefit the U's, thanks to the authorities who have put a ceiling on transfers of youngsters.

Craig Arnott was another player who faded away after being a short lived member of the first team squad - no doubting Craig's tremendous work rate and attitude but I didn't think he quite had enough in his game to make it at WHCS.

Once again the club has a high number of players in the squad who may need to be off-loaded - I would think as many as 8 to 10 are not considered good enough footballers now at this level.

Alex Gilbey and Drey Wright both shone in this game and showed why they will be in the team in the future and there will be others from the group that played on Saturday that look like they might make it.

The manager has probably brought in loans to give him some breathing space to get this team up and running, but the in-house youngsters will get their chances in the future.

Tom Bender has shown glimpses of what he can do in the past, but his early debut perhaps heaped expectation on him before he was ready.