THE BLUEPRINT

For years, I thought Chelsea’s academy was a joke – they won the Youth Cup every year but couldn’t get any of that talent through to the first team for the thick end of 20 years, and yet still aggressively pilfered Europe’s best youngsters season upon season. It’s still quite depressing, but I finally get it. When you see the £ 90m they raked in this summer from academy talent alone, it’s hard not to begrudgingly accept they’re very good at what they do as a glorified investment portfolio. Reece James and Mason Mount benefited from the transfer embargo under Frank Lampard, but so did the club – would Tammy Abraham ( flogged for £ 34m) and Fikayo Tomori (£ 25m) have been so valuable without it? Other clubs might knock them for harbouring talent with zero intention of ever playing them, but it’s only because they can’t do it as well. As a side hustle, it’s genius. Rob King, via email