Chelsea are giving their under-21 midfielder Sam Rak-Sakyi a very difficult decision to make.
This is the youth-team graduate who made his first senior start in freezing conditions against Astana in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in the UEFA Conference League four months ago and played with remarkable cool in front of Chelsea’s back four during that 3-1 away win.
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Yes, the quality of the opposition was not the toughest, but that should not take away from a display that saw the youngster complete a remarkable 87 of his 88 passes.
It felt like the beginning of something.
Rak-Sakyi had already made a couple of appearances from the bench in the same competition, against Noah and Heidenheim. Sure, with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Romeo Lavia (when fit) to choose from, gaining regular first-team minutes was never going to be realistic. But Chelsea fans have barely seen him since, unless they have chosen to watch the under-21s.
He was an unused substitute against Brentford three days after that Astana fixture but had not been selected in a matchday squad by head coach Enzo Maresca in 2025 until the two-legged UEFA Conference League quarter-final against Legia Warsaw this month. Despite Chelsea coasting into a 3-0 lead in Poland, the 20-year-old did not see any action there or during the return leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday. It did not help that Maresca’s side lost 2-1 in the latter match.
However, Chelsea are sending the midfielder the wrong message at the worst possible time.
The club have opened contract talks with Rak-Sakyi since the turn of the year but no agreement has been reached.
Rak-Sakyi plays for Chelsea’s under-21s against Norwich City last month (Harriet Lander/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
He has just over 12 months left remaining on his deal and Chelsea understandably want him to commit his long-term future to the club. They have offered improved terms on that agreement, which he signed in 2024, but money is not the main issue.
As with many youth players at the club’s Cobham academy, he loves the club but securing a pathway into the first team is his main focus.
And Chelsea are actually placing more obstacles on Rak-Sakyi’s route to achieving that, rather than removing those already there.
In January, they signed Mathis Amougou from France’s Saint-Etienne for £12.5million ($16.5m). He operates in a similar position and turned 19 in the month he joined the Londoners. The plan is to loan him to Strasbourg, back in France, next season but he has already made two appearances, against Southampton and Legia — opportunities Rak-Sakyi might have been given instead.
Amougou in action against Southampton (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Last month, Chelsea acquired 20-year-old Dario Essugo from Portugal’s Sporting CP for £18.5million. Unlike Amougou, he is going to be part of their first-team squad next season, as backup to Caicedo. Then there is also Andrey Santos, 20, who has shone on loan at Strasbourg for 18 months. He is earmarked to go into Maresca’s setup this summer as well.
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Rak-Sakyi could be forgiven for thinking he is at the back of a logjam, wondering where he fits in. There is also stiff competition from under-21 team-mate Kiano Dyer, a highly rated 18-year-old who also has one year left on his contract.
One club insider, speaking to The Athletic anonymously to protect relationships, says the most likely outcome is that one of the homegrown boys will stay and the other will be sold.
They are not like-for-like as players, but you could interpret the fact Dyer has played just four minutes under Maresca this season as a sign that Rak-Sakyi is ahead of him in the pecking order. However, that does not mean either will definitely be at the club in 2025-26.
Rak-Sakyi and Caicedo compete for possession in training (Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Further indication of just how much Maresca values Rak-Sakyi is that he asked him to remain in January rather than leaving on loan. Among the offers received was a strong one from Coventry City of the second-tier Championship, managed by ex-Chelsea boss Frank Lampard. They also have former Chelsea academy coach Joe Edwards working as Lampard’s assistant.
Given that duo’s presence, there was a very good chance Rak-Sakyi would have featured regularly in Coventry’s ongoing Premier League promotion bid, earning invaluable experience in the process. Instead, he has continued to play for Chelsea Under-21s, a level he has begun to outgrow.
He has been training regularly with Maresca’s first team and, in February, spoke to the club’s official website about the positive impact rubbing shoulders with the senior players has had on him. “Playing with the men’s team has been massive for my development,” he said. “I feel more confident and I can see myself improving every day.
“It’s been a special season and I’m excited to keep pushing forward with my development.”
In other words, he was hungry for more. Not less.
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This is not the first time Rak-Sakyi’s future at Chelsea, whom he joined at under-eights level, has been in major doubt.
In 2023, he was on the verge of moving to an unidentified Premier League club, but the paperwork was not submitted before the transfer deadline. And last year, as Chelsea tried to discuss an extension, one of their Premier League rivals and a team in the German Bundesliga indicated an interest in buying him. Two of those suitors are still monitoring his contract negotiations, while other sides in England and abroad are alert to his situation.
Another factor that might hamper Chelsea’s attempts to persuade Rak-Sakyi to stay is what has happened to his brother, Jesurun.
The 22-year-old winger left Chelsea’s academy for fellow Premier League club Crystal Palace in 2019 and has since been loaned to Charlton Athletic in the domestic third tier and now a Sheffield United side pushing for automatic promotion from the Championship. He has nearly 100 senior games under his belt, clearly having benefited from seeking pastures new.
Jesurun Rak-Sakyi is on loan at Sheffield United from Palace (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
Chelsea will rightly point to the in-house promotions of Tyrique George and Josh Acheampong this season as evidence that the pathway from the academy to the first team is there if you are good enough and work hard enough.
By being included for both matches against Legia, Maresca and the club do seem to be trying to send a reminder of Rak-Sakyi’s value. Having been at Chelsea’s academy since he was a kid, the midfielder is also accustomed to battling for his place so, in many ways, this will feel like more of the same. But Maresca could have done a bit more after Rak-Sakyi’s Astana display to ease any doubts.
Speaking before the Legia game on Thursday about the six under-21 players (including Rak-Sakyi) to be named on the bench, Maresca said: “We love to give them a chance and we’ve shown that during the season, not just in the Conference League but also in the Premier League.
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“They need a path, so hopefully we can give them some minutes during the game.”
Yet Maresca opted not to use Rak-Sakyi, or any of the other prospects in the game that followed.
If the England youth international does not feature in a match Chelsea began with a three-goal cushion at home against only the fifth-best side in Poland, he might wonder when his next opportunity will come.
And therein lies the problem.
(Top photo: Chris Lee/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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