Ben Chilwell: Watch This Space

With Leicester’s current form and league position it would be easy to forget about the future and concentrate on the now. But with the international break dominating the last two weeks, it turned my thoughts elsewhere, onto the future Foxes. Looking at the current under 21s, nobody stands out more than Ben Chilwell.

Not every Premier League academy player is handed a first team squad number, gets to train with the first team most days and makes his professional début at the tender age of eighteen just months after turning professional. So far, Ben Chilwell isn’t shaping up to be just any old academy graduate though.

This week has been a busy one for the young left-back. Having recently captained the England under 20s, he found himself promoted to the under 21 squad due to injuries and was on duty with them over the weekend. Earlier this week it was then suggested that he would be joining Championship side, Huddersfield Town on loan until January, the move confirmed earlier on today. Taking into account the aforementioned first team number, début in the Capital One Cup and being named on the bench against West Brom last month, you could say it’s been a good season already for the youngster.

There was rumoured interest from Arsenal over the summer for the fullback but both he and Leicester are keeping his feet firmly on the ground. Claudio Ranieri saw something in him immediately and made the decision to promote him to the first time. He’s not the only one, but he’s certainly the one grabbing all of the attention. Chilwell picked up the Academy Player of the Year award at the club last season, having impressed for the Under 18s and captaining them for the majority of the season. As captain, he led them to an FA Youth Cup semi-final for only the second time in the Foxes’ history and in their first Premier League season, they finished safely in seventh.

The Foxes have nurtured Chilwell so far but their faith in him doesn’t seem misplaced and with his loan to Huddersfield, he looks set to continue the tradition of first team experience. Even for those who haven’t made the step up in the end, Leicester have always tried to get their promising youngsters out on loan at league clubs. Some on social media made negative remarks because the Terriers are trying to avoid a relegation battle, but in my opinion it’s a savvy move from the club. He may well learn more from this challenge than at a more comfortable club. Crucially, he should get to play.

Loan moves have proven they work and it’s given our youngsters a platform to showcase themselves. Although we have yet to see much of him in the first time, development squad player, Michael Cain, had an incredibly successful loan spell at Walsall last season. He became quickly popular with the Saddlers faithful and even featured for them at Wembley in the Johnstone Paint Trophy Final. He’s another player that Ranieri has had training with the first team and I wonder if we may see him in the squad in the early stages of the FA Cup.

For Chilwell to make it into the England Under 21s squad without having already completed a loan spell is impressive. Having made the step up to Leicester’s development squad this year, he’s seen team-mate Tom Lawrence head out on loan to Blackburn Rovers. The midfielder has played quite regularly and it helped him cement a spot in Wales’ squad for the recent Euro qualifiers. He even started for them in the friendly match this week against Holland. The impact of a good loan spell is proven. Ranieri has made it clear that he will review Chilwell’s position at the end of the loan and take it from there, so we could well see him come into the fold towards the end of the season. Particularly if the Foxes are safe from relegation with games to spare.

For those who haven’t had a chance to see Chilwell in action yet, he has the typical fullback sort of build. Average height, slight but quick, he’s got an eye for going forward, teaming up with a winger to overlap and cross into the box as well as his defensive duties. Perhaps what’s most exciting about him though, is that you can tell he loves to defend. Something not found in as many of the modern fullbacks, he’s always looking to make a block, tackle or interception.

From the performances I’ve seen he has a calmness and maturity beyond his years. He was given a tough opponent to mark in his cup début against Hull but didn’t panic and had got the measure of Mohammed Diame early on. While fans were not entirely thrilled with the team’s overall performance that night, Chilwell was a highlight.

Leicester’s record of bringing youth through hasn’t been entirely unsuccessful, but it’s certainly not near the success story that other Premier League clubs have had and it’s never been a great source of income for us either. We’ve only made around £5,000,000 (not including several undisclosed fees) from selling academy graduates since 2002 and ultimately the most successful of those has been Richard Stearman, now with Fulham in the Championship. It likely should have been Matt Piper who left to join Sunderland, but serious injury meant he missed long spells and eventually led to his retirement at the age of just twenty-six.

Chilwell isn’t the youngest débutante Leicester have had, you have to go back to 2005 for that when a 15 year-old Ashley Chambers made the jump from the academy to the first team. Chambers is in a large group of players for whom it just didn’t work out at Leicester, and who now ply their trade in the lower leagues. While for some it came down to a lack of progression, the striker’s plight was primarily because of a combination of injuries and a lot of managerial change. Before he left the club he only made a further five appearances in six years. The club, and fans, had high expectations for the youngster, much as we have had for others in the past.

This has been the story for so many of our young players before, and each time, we’ve wondered if they will be the one to break the mould. Jeff Schlupp and Andy King are exceptions of where our youth has both made it into the first team, and established themselves as regular first team players. Since both made their début and started playing regularly, it’s been nearly five years for Schlupp and eight years for King.

Chilwell will want to avoid ending up like some of these players and will look to King and Schlupp for advice and inspiration. Had circumstances not changed, we could include Liam Moore in that list too. Having broken into the first team under Nigel Pearson two seasons ago, Moore found himself somewhat out of favour last season. It was a combination of the formation we were playing, injury and perhaps his age. Leicester had high hopes for the defender though. Like Chilwell, he’d been one of the best in the Under 18s and his performances were equally mature and impressive. Moore had been out on loan before breaking into the first team, well liked by the Bradford fans after making twenty-two appearances for them.

Leicester born and bred, and a fan, Foxes fans also took quickly to the versatile defender and he had formed a good partnership with Wes Morgan and Marcin Wasilewski in the Championship. With first team chances limited this season and seemingly not a first choice for Claudio Ranieri, he’s currently out on loan to Bristol City and will hope to use it as a chance to get back into the fold.

If Chilwell can establish himself in the Foxes’ long term plans and team, he’ll be one of a select group and arguably the first to do it it in our current Premier League campaign unless Joe Dodoo can beat him to it, having gone out on loan himself this week to League One outfit, Bury. He’s not the first player

As with any promising player that is so young, it’s more about expectation and waiting to see if it can be met. Leicester have so far nurtured Chilwell and sending him out on loan should prove to be a good move for both player and club. There are ten games between now and the date his loan with Huddersfield runs out and the left-back will hope to feature in all.

If Chilwell continues to improve and excite, keeping hold of him might be the real challenge. Currently his contract runs out at the end of the year and I for one, would love to keep him and see him progress into the first team.