For many years, it had been said that Roman Abramovich dreamed about having a Chelsea team full of academy products.
For the years when Chelsea was one of the heaviest spenders in the transfer market, and John Terry remained the sole academy breakthrough in the first-team, those ambitions were met with great cynicism.
Although it took a transfer embargo by FIFA and a rookie coach, Abramovich finally got to witness that vision take form in the last four years of his ownership.
It says so much about how fruitful Cobham has been to the first-team that when a lineup without an academy product dropped for the game away at Manchester City in January, there was a great surprise.
As Chelsea Youth pointed out, the run of an academy graduate in the matchday squad lasted for 199 games.
Estimated by TalkSport, Chelsea has made £210million from selling products of their academy set-up since 2015, nearly £100m of that came in 2021 via the sales of Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Marc Guehi, Tino Livramento and more.
But it's not just selling these talents that provide Chelsea with value. It is the way those players have clearly benefitted the first team since 2019.
Mason Mount, Reece James, Andreas Christensen, Trevoh Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, to name a few.
The aforementioned Abraham and Tomori were highly impressive under Frank Lampard in the 2019/20 season and provided priceless internal solutions during a challenging period.
It speaks volumes that if you were to pick the most influential Chelsea players since 2019, the names of Mount and James would likely be brought up.
Both played brilliantly in last season's Champions League final.
If you had suggested after Didier Drogba's winning penalty in Munich nine years ago that an academy talent would provide the winning pass for the next European Cup, some might have laughed.
Wednesday night's FA Cup win over Luton saw another on the production line in Harvey Vale gain further senior minutes in his hope to follow the paths of Mount, James and Chalobah in becoming a fully-fledged senior under Thomas Tuchel.
Such is the value that academy products have quickly offered. In the coming weeks, prospective owners will take over from Abramovich and will be handed a gift to supplement the first team for years to come.
The likes of Levi Colwill, Conor Gallagher and Armando Broja are proving out on loan how unique Chelsea's production line is.
These are ready-made Premier League talents who don't look remotely fazed by the challenge of elite-level football.
That education and culture simply must be preserved and protected. Any new owner would be foolish to scupper such a godsend. The incredible work of Neil Bath, head of youth development, over the Abramovich era has forged the best academy in world football, one that is the envy of rivals.
It can save and make you money in the transfer window whilst keeping a local and homegrown feel to the first-team squad despite the appreciation for global talent.
Whoever buys Chelsea must grasp how vital the academy is for the club's future.
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