Antonio Conte has congratulated England Under-17s on their World Cup win and vowed to give Chelsea's crop of young talents a chance at the club.
Callum Hudson-Odoi, Jonathan Panzo, George McEachran and Marc Guehi were all part of the Three Lions squad that defeated Spain 5-2 in Saturday's final, with former Blues academy graduate Rhian Brewster also starring.
Conte, who captained Italy as a player and also managed the national side, is predicting big things in the future for England and has promised he will give Chelsea's young players a chance, if he deems them good enough to warrant a place.
“A big congratulations to the whole team because to win the World Cup with the Under-17 national team means they are working really well,” the Chelsea boss said.
“I think football in England is growing in an incredible way because it is not the only result for [these] young players, Under-19s, Under-20s have won and the Under-21s played a really good European Championship. It means football is growing and improving a lot.
“I am sure that in the future, the England national team, the first team will be very difficult to beat. I want to tell you this because I was a coach with the Italy national team and I think when you have this movement in front of you, you can have a great possibility to have a strong team for the next World Cup and for the other competitions.
“I am very happy for our players, and sometimes Callum Hudson-Odoi came with us. I am very happy with our academy because it means our academy is working very well. Against Everton, [Ethan] Ampadu played for the first time and he is only 17 years old.
“Don’t forget that my first appearance in my career in Serie A, I was only 16 years old. I think I am the best person to give this possibility. If I see. I repeat. In my experience at Juventus, Pogba was only 18 years old.
“I repeat I want to give these possibilities – but you have to deserve these possibilities. He is not an England player, only 17 years old, but he deserves to stay with us and to develop, to be the future of Chelsea.”
Chelsea have now won three games in a row after beating Bournemouth and, ahead of the meeting with Roma in the Champions League, Conte is calling on his players to keep their focus.
“Don’t forget that we played against Atletico Madrid. I have players with a good experience to face this type of situation,” he added. “You have to play football, you want to try to play better than in the first game.
“For sure we have to try to do this. It won’t be easy but first of all we have to go game-by-game. Now the most important game is the Roma game in the Champions League. After this game we will start to think towards Manchester United.”
