'You won’t play' – The weakness Chelsea’s brightest talent was called for out as a kid

“He was very small [at 14], tiny,” Ferreira said.

“By coincidence, when he finally came for his first training session, I was just warming up the team with simple long balls and headers and he didn’t want to head the ball! I went to him and said ‘look, “Little Messi” my ass, you will head the ball and your right foot is terrible, so work on it!’

“You head the ball and you use your right foot, because if you don’t, you won’t play.”

It seems like Estevao did just that. As it pointed out later in the article, his first professional goal, which came in the Copa Libertadores, was a header. His first assist for Chelsea? On his right foot? His most memorable moment for the Blues so far? A winning goal, scored in the last minute against Liverpool… on his right foot.

That tough love really didn’t take long to pay off. Now Chelsea get to reap the rewards of the great coaching done in Brazil. There is still a lot of development still to do, but the foundations are all there technically thanks to those early years.

In other news…

Chelsea have found out what they would need to pay to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, and it’s not going to be easy for the Blues to pull off given the financial plates they’ve got to spin.

At the back, Chelsea have been told to target Jarrad Branthwaite by former player Pat Nevin.