Chelsea Youth Part 2... Dominic Solanke

Just as Tammy Abraham, Dominic Solanke has been with Chelsea since day 1, he plays as a striker and let me tell you, in his last couples of seasons at youth level, not only for Chelsea but for England Solanke has been astonishing.

Solanke’s first season with the U18’s wasn’t great,  Solanke made 10 appearances and scored 2 goals however the following season in 2013-14 Solanke really stood out, at the beginning of the season where in 13 appearances he scored 13 goals whilst setting up another 8, these included back to back hat-tricks against Dartford and Reading respectively, by the close of the season Solanke netting 20 goals in 28 appearances, which 2 came in the FA Youth Cup final against Fulham, in a very close fought battle which ended up with Chelsea being victorious 7-6 on aggregate.

Solanke with the FA Youth Cup

Furthermore, in the 2014-15 season we really saw how good Dominic Solanke actually was, his form didn’t go unnoticed by a certain Jose Mourinho, thus leading Jose to give Solanke his full Chelsea debut against Maribor in the Champions league after replacing Oscar Emboaba.  And the fine form of Solanke continued scoring an overall total of 41 goals in 39 appearances! Which 14 of those came in 12 appearances for the U18’s, where Solanke scored 10 times so Chelsea could retain the FA Youth Cup , 12 goals came from 9 appearances in the UEFA Youth League, where Solanke was top goal scorer ahead of Aaron Leya Iseka of Anderlecht  and finally another 15 goals as of 18 appearances for the U21’s. With all this taken into account he was awarded the Chelsea Academy Player of the Year award.

Solanke thinks his winners medal tastes delicious 

Solanke hasn’t just been on form for Chelsea, but has replicated this form on the international stage as well; where for the England U17’s was clinical with 13 goals coming from 14 caps in 2013-14 in which England won the U17 European Championships, where Solanke was once again was top goal scorer with 4 moreover scored in the final to give England there second title after beating the Dutch on penalties. Furthermore moving up another age group to the U18’s in 2014, Solonke continued to impress with another 10 goals in 11 international appearances.

Solanke with U17 European Championship

Solanke seems to me a real talent at 17 and scoring for fun, but the real test is what he will do in Holland? Literally a few hours ago Chelsea confirmed that, Solanke will be going to Vitesse Arnhem on loan for the 2015-16 season in search of first team football, if it’s anything to go by with what Chelsea have done in the past, with players that have gone on loan to Vitesse Arnhem, for example look at Bernad Traore and Lucas Piazon, they have both been on loan in Holland and have thrived on that experience and I’m pretty sure that Solanke, Brown, Baker, Nathan and Pantic are all going to benefit in one way or another.

Champions League debut for the young Striker 

Watch Solanke and let me know what you think

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