by In 2014, Jose Mourinho predicted that three Chelsea talents would achieve big things, but the trio’s careers have been a mixed bag.
Mourinho returned to Chelsea for a second time in 2013 and was building a team to challenge for the title in his second season at the helm.
Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis and Juan Cuadrado were all signed in the summer window, but ahead of pre-season Mourinho spoke to three young English stars who had come through the academy.
He was confident all three would make it and said he would have to ‘blame himself’ if they didn’t go on to play for the national team.
Mourinho said during the tour: “My conscience tells me that if, for example, [Lewis] Baker, [Izzy] Brown and [Dominic] Solanke won’t be a national team player in a few years, I have to blame myself for that.
“They are part of a process that the club started without me. At the moment we have players who will be Chelsea players. And if they become Chelsea players, they will almost certainly become England players.”
Although they were integral to Chelsea’s dominance at youth level, this didn’t quite happen before the Trident.
Lewis Baker has played just twice for Chelsea, in FA Cup matches eight years apart. During his time as a Chelsea player he was sent on a plethora of loans, namely to Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons, Vitesse, Middlesbrough, Leeds, Reading, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Trabzonspor.
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He then found regular football with Stoke City in the Championship, making 92 appearances and scoring 20 goals in four seasons. Before the current season he signed for Blackburn Rovers on loan, but made only one appearance.
It was a similar story for Izzy Brown, who also spent time on loan at Vitesse and Sheffield Wednesday, as well as the likes of Rotherham, Huddersfield, Brighton, Leeds and Luton.
After Mourinho selected him as a player for the future, the forward made just one appearance in the title-winning 2014/15 season, coming on as a late substitute in a 3-0 defeat to former club West Brom.
He eventually signed for Preston North End on a free transfer in 2021, but did not play a single minute for the Lilywhites and was released. Brown retired in 2023 after two series of Achilles injuries.
Dominic Solanke was another Chelsea academy graduate who spent time at feeder club Vitesse in the Netherlands. He left with just a 17-minute Champions League cameo in the first team and failed to get going at Liverpool, where he once went 26 games without scoring.
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He would eventually find his feet at Bournemouth and a 21-goal season in 2023/24 earned him a £55 million move to Spurs, where he found the net five times.
Seven years after his first cap, Solanke returned to the England national team with a substitute appearance against Greece in October.
