Chelsea Youngster Tipped to Follow John Terry's Footsteps

“I get to go to Cobham, and I get to see the great training that happens,” he said when asked about the Academy. “Chelsea are always innovating with their academy. I see myself being involved with them because it’s so good for my development."

The scout continued to highlight Gilchrist as the most likely youngster to go onto captain Chelsea, following in Terry's footsteps.

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years, so some of my players are starting to get to 18 or 19. Alfie Gilchrist, he’s the Chelsea Under-23s captain. He’s only 18 but he could be the next John Terry, he’s a really good player.

Despite only being 18 years old, this will come as a boost to Chelsea, who have several first team defenders out of contract at the end of the season.

Cesar Azpilicutea, Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and Thiago Silva could all leave at the end of the season, as Trevoh Chalobah would be left as the only senior defender currently at the club.

Levi Colwill is currently out on loan at Huddersfield and could return, and perhaps somebody like Gilchrist could step up to the first team after the departures of former Cobham Academy stars Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori.