Blue wonder
The making of young Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham
There is a photograph that has circulated every time Tammy Abraham has scored this season. His exact age is not known, but it shows him as a youngster in full Chelsea kit, stood in the car park of the club’s training ground to the left of Roman Abramovich.
The billionaire Chelsea owner was also in the Stamford Bridge stands on the night, in 2015, when Abraham scored one of the goals to help the club to a 2-1 FA Youth Cup final success over Manchester City.
So Abramovich will know only too well that Abraham has been more than 10 years in the making for Chelsea and that his is a story of determination, patience and sliding doors. He might even have heard the tales of the youngster who used to sulk his way through physical drills before lighting up when the balls came out and played on the right wing to improve his footwork and impress his mentor Didier Drogba.
A Fifa transfer ban, together with the appointment of head coach Frank Lampard, will be viewed by many as the catalyst for Abraham getting his big break at Chelsea. But there were three moments before this summer that were crucial to where Abraham finds himself now as he prepares for Chelsea’s clash against Liverpool tomorrow as the Premier League’s top goalscorer alongside Sergio Aguero.
First, in 2016, Chelsea turned down the chance to sign Gabriel Barbosa, a Brazilian youngster who was being tipped for big things. At that time, Abraham had not started a first-team game at any level but Chelsea did not want to potentially block his development.
He was sent on loan to Championship club Bristol City, where he scored 11 goals in his first 14 games and finished the season with 26 in total. In doing so, Abraham became the first player in the club’s history to win the Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and top goalscorer awards in the same campaign.
“The thing that stood out for me was his unbelievable ability to find space in the box when there was none,” said Bristol City head coach Lee Johnson. “Whether that was one of his big long toes that would pop out and poke it in, or whether he’s using the air space to direct a header. Even in training, everybody was moving away from the goal as he was moving towards it.
“We went on a bad run, but he stayed consistent and I felt as a manager that he fought for me. That was a sign of his maturity, but also his moral compass.”
Another sliding doors moment was to come the following year, as Premier League and European clubs queued up to try to take Abraham on loan. Another Brazilian, this time by the name of Richarlison, was offered to Chelsea but again the club said no because they feared they could lose their academy product for good if they signed a young foreign import.
Richarlison instead joined Watford and, initially, Chelsea’s decision looked like it might have been an error by former technical director Michael Emenalo, as the forward made a big enough impression at Vicarage Road to earn a £50million move to Everton.
Abraham had been loaned out to Swansea City for Premier League experience and again started strongly with five goals in 10 games, but things got tougher as the club became sucked into a relegation battle. He scored only three more goals, but Swansea sporting director Leon Britton, then a team-mate of Abraham, was still instantly reminded of one of the Premier League’s best strikers.
“I was at Lilleshall with Jermain Defoe and we spent time together at West Ham as young players, too,” said Britton. “It’s clear that Tammy is quite different to Jermain in terms of his height and profile, but he really reminded me of him because of his hunger to score goals. Just like Jermain, he was so driven in terms of wanting to score goals in every training session and every game he played.
“We were fighting relegation and it was probably the first time he wasn’t getting loads of chances. He had to work on his game in terms of holding the ball up. I think he’s learned from it, even though it didn’t quite work like he wanted to. Long-term, he’s benefitted.”
Perhaps unfairly, Abraham faced doubts over his Premier League pedigree for the first time in the summer of 2018 and he eventually made a transfer-deadline day loan move to Aston Villa after top-flight clubs, including Cardiff City, had been told he was not available. Rather than thinking he was too good for another season in the Championship, Abraham used the opportunity as another chance to prove himself and by January of this year he had scored 14 times, including a four-goal performance against Nottingham Forest.
That is when the next sliding doors moment arrived, as Wolves expressed an interest in signing Abraham on loan or permanently. Chelsea were in favour of another loan as the move would have given Abraham more top flight experience. But there was also a concern that convincing him to leave behind Wolves, who were performing well and eventually qualified for Europe, might prove difficult. That worry, together with uncertainty over whether or not an appearance for Chelsea’s under-23s would scupper a second loan, eventually led to Abraham staying at Villa and becoming the first striker to hit 20 league goals or more for the club since Peter Withe as he fired the club to promotion.
Steve Bruce, who signed Abraham on loan for Villa, said: “I wouldn’t be surprised by anything he does in his career. He can run, he’s a good athlete, but he has this insatiable appetite for goals and he has the knack of finding space in the box. He’s a good lad too. He was willing to go out on loan and learn.” Abraham was preparing for the under-21 European Championships with England when he heard former head coach Maurizio Sarri had left Chelsea. Until then, his future was unclear, but the squad’s Whatsapp groups started to buzz with excited chatter of Lampard’s possible return with Jody Morris.
The fact Joe Edwards was also promoted to Lampard’s first-team staff was another boost to Abraham, as the pair had won two successive FA Youth Cups together in 2015, in front of Abramovich, and 2016. “I had Tammy when he was seven or eight years old,” said Edwards. “I noticed him straight away because, even then, he was nearly as tall as me!
“At that age, we used to build the session up with some basic physical drills to develop their agility and co-ordination, and it was very apparent, very early that Tammy wasn’t interested in that sort of stuff. He could come across quite sulky. But when you got the balls out and got the skills session going or come game time, he lit up and loved it. He had so much enthusiasm to get on the ball and a real determination to win.
“For the height, for the physical presence he had as a young kid, he probably did need to tighten up his footwork. When he went through a growth spurt at 12 or 13, he didn’t look as comfortable with the ball at his feet as he had at a younger age.
“So it helped his game that we played him in multiple positions. In the 15 to 18 age groups, he often played as a winger on the right.”
Drogba was at his peak when Abraham started out at Chelsea and by the time the Ivorian returned for a second spell, the youngster was receiving invites to train with Jose Mourinho’s first-team squad.
“When we wanted to improve the way he held up the ball and used his presence against defenders, Didier would be one we could use to compare and motivate him with,” said Edwards. “Didier was a big icon for him and when he did get opportunities to go over and train with the first team, it would have been in Didier’s second spell at the club and I know that Didier helped him a lot.”
On the difference between Abraham the academy striker and the 21-year-old who is troubling Premier League defences, Edwards added: “Tammy has kicked on in terms of how he receives the ball, his awareness when he’s got to link play up and the intelligence and the purpose behind his movement. I see a lot more thought behind what he does.”
The sliding doors have become an open door at Chelsea – and Abraham looks to be heading straight for the top.