Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he has been forced to call up nine Chelsea youngsters for first-team training amid the club’s injury crisis.
The Blues have 10 stars ruled out for the clash with Newcastle – Conor Gallagher, Reece James, Christopher Nkunku, Ben Chilwell, Levi Colwill, Romeo Lavia, Benoit Badiashile, Carney Chukwuemeka, Lesley Ugochukwu and Wesley Fofana.
That has forced Pochettino to take drastic action and he has turned to the club’s academy ahead of Monday’s match at Stamford Bridge against the Mapgies.
‘Yesterday, there were nine young kids [training] from the academy,’ Pochettino said in his press conference on Thursday.
‘We know really well the academy players. Yes, maybe they will have the opportunity to be involved [against Newcastle], for sure.
‘We have an amazing academy we need to use in this type of circumstance. It’s to build the future, the confidence, to arrive and be part of the first-team.’
Quizzed if having too many young players was a problem for Chelsea, Pochettino added: ‘Maybe, yes [that could be the issue].
‘People that want to believe in this, okay. It’s the opinion. Look, I was explaining from the beginning of the season what was going on here, trying to be transparent. I’m not going to try and convince people and justify the result.’
Pochettino, though, insists he still has faith in the Chelsea project under co-owner Todd Boehly, who replaced Roman Abramovich in May 2022.
‘I really believe we can succeed,’ the Argentine said. ‘We got to a [Carabao Cup] final, the first trophy, we were there and we fully deserved after 90 minutes to win the game. If we fully believe we can win games, then I think we can be close to be in the position to get into Europe. Football is about belief.’
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