Set to continue at Chelski too - (no appearances)

When John Bostock left us in 2008, we were a struggling championship club. There is no comparison to where we are now. Nine years in the Premier and counting with an academy which is now the envy of many clubs. I think Atta will regret this.

in England you can only sign as a professional at 17 and even then the maximum contract length is 3 years.

So he will be a free agent at 20 regardless. Exactly this scenario happened with Routledge when Spurs turned his head (at 19 with 1 year left of his contract).

To not sign at 17 can only be due to money. He will clearly get more chance of 1st team time at Palace.

It is disappointing, however, even at 17 this contract could make him a millionaire.

Disappointed but not surprised.

It isn't that clear as I wouldn't mind betting that Chelsea have brought through more of their youth players in the last five years than we have.

Additionally Chelsea have also sent more of their youngsters out on loan to Premier League and Championship clubs than we have in fact I can't recall us having sent anyone out on loan to a club in the first two tiers

It's not as if we actually developed Rak Sakyi or Mitchell from the start!

The market at the academy level is absurdly competitive nowadays and in some ways we are 10 years too late if we're expecting to find talent, develop it and keep it all the way through.

The principle of maximising the undoubted potential of out catchment area is sound but I'm dubious just how far we can realistically compete with the bigger clubs once we do find and develop the talent. The surest way to do that is to keep the door open to first team opportunities but that in turn almost certainly requires a selling club mentality to keep the spaces open.

You are looking at this from the wrong angle.

He will clearly get more 1st opportunity at Palace as we are not as good as Chelsea, our squad is smaller and we are actively trying to promote youth and improve our youth team facilities.
This is surely indisputable.

Chelsea has promoted more players to the 1st team as they have a bigger and better youth set up (probably 10 years ahead of ours) and also had a transfer ban for a year under Lampard. Similarly they have a policy of loaning out players as they have such strength in depth, something we don't have.

Guehi is a good example of this - nowhere near 1st team but a successful loan has improved him and his transfer value. Gallagher appears to be going a similar way.

For every Mount and James there is a Loftus Cheek at Chelsea.

Atta will be getting probably double or triple the wages at Chelsea and will no doubt be paying a large agent's fee. Unfortunately that's the bottom line.