Mauricio Pochettino has new four-man Chelsea core after £214m transfer decision

 Mauricio Pochettino has always placed stock on local players at his clubs and is intent on doing the same at Chelsea. Luckily for him there one of the best forms of access to youngsters at Cobham and they are already set to have a major part to play under 

"The Under-17s, Under-19s and Under-21s make me believe even more in English talent and everyone realises, 'Oh we have good talent in our boys.' It's important to see," he described in 2017.

It allowed him at both Southampton and Spurs to hand players debuts throughout his tenure with many going on to earn international recognition including Adam Lallana, Ricky Lambert and Luke Shaw.

Since 2019, Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Reece James, Fikayo Tomori, Billy Gilmour, Conor Gallagher and Calum Hudson-Odoi have all represented their countries. Ruben Loftus-Cheek made his debut in 2018; before that it was six years back to 2012 before the last new England or Scotland international to come from the club.

Although not all those players ended up remaining at Chelsea, Even this past week Frank Lampard opening first team training to the club's Under-14 captain.

Of course, we can build a very good core of English players with our identity, coming through our academy, and players coming outside of England and English players coming from different clubs," Pochettino added at the time. "It's an exciting challenge for us and exciting philosophy for us to build.