Conte includes youngsters in Chelsea squad
Trevoh Chalobah is among the Chelsea youngsters included in the squad for the FA Cup fifth-round tie against Hull City.
The 18-year-old brother of former Chelsea man Nathaniel Chalobah has been called into the squad by boss Antonio Conte along with Ethan Ampadu, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Kyle Scott and Dujon Sterling.
Ampadu, who can play in defence or midfield, and striker Hudson-Odoi have both impressed when they have featured for the first team this season.
Midfielder Scott and wide-man Sterling have been on the fringes of the senior squad, while defender Chalobah (pictured above) has impressed at youth and Under-21 levels.
Conte is set to give at least a couple of youngsters a chance to show what they can do in Friday’s game.
“In the past, in the Carabao Cup and also the FA Cup, I gave them the chance to play,” the Italian said.
“We are talking about two of the best players of our academy in this case (Ampadu and Hudson-Odoi).
“With Ampadu it is not difficult to predict a brilliant future for this player and it is the same for Odoi.
“We have Sterling, there is Chalobah’s brother, and Scott. They are coming with us for the game tomorrow.
“I think Chelsea’s future is very brilliant to have these young players.”
Ross Barkley, David Luiz and Tiemoue Bakayoko are all unavailable and Conte plans to assess the fitness of other Blues players before naming his line-up.
Conte added that Alvaro Morata is likely to play at least some part, having suffered no adverse reaction following his recent return from a back problem.
“We have in front of us two weeks of tough games,” Conte said when asked if he planned to make major changes for this week’s match.
“It is right to have a programme and a plan to face these two tough weeks in the right way, but at the same time we want to go through to the next round in the FA Cup.”
16/02/2018 @ 11:09 am
This is Chelsea’s future and the hard work being done at the academy is paying off.These young players should be ready and brought into the squad instead of paying out huge transfer fees for players that come for the money and not the club.Since the like of Jimmy Greaves
our past Eden Hazard ,the club have produced young quality footballers.But because instant rewards with trophies were the priority we have let many an excellent
player move on.Patience and the stability of the same manager at the club will bring the trophies just as it did for Man Utd with Giggs,Beckham,Butt,Scholes and the Neville brothers.Sir Alex was left alone to make it the success it was.Mourinho will never make it such because of his quick fix mentality.Antonio is the man,he is still learning but a top class manager.Everyone is working hard and those that don’t are shown the door.So the mentality of our home grown players is instilled for the future.