How Long Can Chelsea Ignore Their Own Busby Babes Generation?

Regardless of the tragedy that would cement the Busby Babes’ place in history, the common view is names such as Duncan Edwards would have lived on in football folklore.

It was their ability as footballers that forged their legend well in advance of the Munich air disaster in 1958. Even now when Manchester United fans celebrate that team of the 1950s, it’s football that defines the conversation. They want to talk about how talented individual players were, how they represented what the club is all about to leave their footprint on the game.

Matt Busby’s budding stars won five FA Youth Cups on the bounce. From 1953 to 1957, the competition was theirs in every sense. Considering the aggregate scores in some of those finals—they beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 9-3, West Bromwich Albion 7-1 and West Ham United 8-2—just reinforces the fact.

It was a unique period in English football that few clubs have come close to emulating. Going for their third successive FA Youth Cup this season, Chelsea aren’t too far off themselves, though.

The Blues face Manchester City on Friday in the first leg of the final before welcoming them back to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday. Repeat their success over their opponents at the same stage last year and history will be made—not since the 1950s has a club been so dominant in the competition.

This year is the sixth FA Youth Cup final Chelsea have contested in seven seasons—a phenomenal record in itself. They’ve won four of them (2010, 2012, 2014 and 2015), and had it not been for the 2013 loss to Norwich City, they would be on the brink of something even greater than they already are.

It’s why comparisons between Chelsea’s youngsters and those Busby Babes is apt. Just by getting this far, the current crop has surpassed the exploits of Chelsea’s back-to-back Youth Cup winners from 1960 and 1961.

Those teams featured Terry Venables and Ron Harris among other players who would go on to be recognised as Tommy Docherty’s Diamonds. Given how the Busby Babes are revered by neutrals as well as their own supporters, it’s that sort of acclaim these youngsters and Chelsea should be chasing.

Like United were back then, there’s a sense Chelsea could well be on the cusp of bringing through a generation of players nurtured by the club that will define a large part of their history.

Harris, John Hollins and Peter Osgood—although the latter wasn’t a Youth Cup winner—did that for Chelsea by winning the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. It was a level …

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