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LONDON — Trevoh Chalobah and Reece James set Chelsea on their way to a commanding 4-0 victory over Juventus and a Champions League last-16 spot, but the pair’s ongoing emergence is strengthening the club in other notable ways.
The serenity with which the Blues have negotiated the formative months of this season has helped relegate uncertainty over several senior first-team players to mere footnotes in a run that has seen them progress in Europe while holding a lead at the top of the Premier League. That continued at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday in Thomas Tuchel’s 50th game in charge, as his side delivered another emphatic performance to banish the memory of a 1-0 defeat in last month’s reverse fixture and take control of Group H, needing only to match Juve’s result against Malmo when they take on Zenit St. Petersburg next month to win the group.
The prominent presence of several academy players has its genesis in Frank Lampard’s spell in charge, and there was no guarantee this would extend into Tuchel’s tenure given he lacked the same deep-rooted connection with many of the club’s youngsters. But not only has Tuchel picked up where Lampard left off, he has added Chalobah to the list of homegrown players to thrive in an arena once considered impenetrable to the academy, creating a useful buffer in protracted contract negotiations involving Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta and, to a lesser extent, Thiago Silva.
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That quartet are all out of contract at the end of the season. While it remains unclear whether Silva will continue for another season given he will turn 38 next September, the remaining trio are viewed as useful, retainable assets, but Chalobah and James producing performances like this will only make director Marina Granovskaia even more comfortable in her negotiating position.
The same is true of…
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Source : espn
