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Against my better judgement, a few comments on Musiala, partly because the coverage about him seems to be tilted one way and there& #39;s a balance to be found.
It should almost go without saying that I think he& #39;s a wonderful talent and none of this is about his ability or potential (you can search back in my feed for what I thought of him). It& #39;s a more broader point about his move and how he& #39;s now viewed because hype is intoxicating.
Understandably, young English players going abroad attracts attention, even more so when they go to a top three club in the world and make a relatively instant impact. No problem. He& #39;s well ahead of schedule and has grabbed his chance with both hands.
& #39;Why did Chelsea let him go?& #39; is a pointless question though. They didn& #39;t. They made him a very good offer at a stage in his career where he was free to consider his options. They thought he was signing until days before he left. It was a surprise and a disappointment.
He got a VERY generous offer from Bayern; make no mistake about it. The football pathway is one thing but don& #39;t kid yourself into thinking they didn& #39;t make it an attractive deal all-round. Chelsea had some concerns about his size but that Bayern diet seems to be working for him.
And that& #39;s fine too; this is the game now. It& #39;s how Chelsea get players from big European clubs, it& #39;s how the game works, and you& #39;re gonna lose a few just as often as you get a few. Young players are more ambitious than ever and that& #39;s great.
(The dual-national thing comes into it a bit as well but not a huge amount)
We& #39;re told he& #39;s getting chances he wouldn& #39;t have got at Chelsea; true to an extent. He& #39;s playing for a team several orders of magnitude better than anyone else in the same league. Coming on to score at 8-0 and 5-0 up alongside superstars is a very nice way to ease yourself in.
He got plenty of acclaim for a performance against a fifth-tier side in the cup. Had he stayed at Chelsea he& #39;d probably be playing against third or fourth tier teams in the EFL trophy, and without the benefit of world-class team-mates around him. Much difference? Dunno.
Last season Chelsea gave debuts to 17 year-olds in Tino Anjorin and Ian Maatsen, while Lewis Bate was a sub without getting on. Different circumstances, different clubs, but a pathway nonetheless. It& #39;s just how football works sometimes.
Anyway, it& #39;s a bit of a ramble but Musiala is a talented kid with a long way to go. He& #39;s at a great club for his development, but the same would have still been true at Chelsea to some extent.
There& #39;s also a really interesting dynamic to discuss about how breakthrough players during the pandemic are doing it in empty stadiums and how they& #39;ll fare when crowds return is something of an unknown, but that& #39;s for another day.
Musiala& #39;s success, and the successes of anyone who has passed through the Chelsea academy (or and/or off the pitch) also reflects the exceptional commitment and work done by so many people at Cobham (and attached to Cobham).
