Chelsea were the leading academy provider of Premier League minutes this season, edging out Manchester City and United, while Liverpool gave the largest share of their own first-team minutes to homegrown players
Newcastle’s Tino Livramento, left, and Lewis Hall, right, collide with Wolves’ Goncalo Guedes
(Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
Chelsea's academy has been recognised as the top producer of Premier League players for the 2024/25 season - with Newcastle United among the beneficiaries.
The Blues regained the top spot in the PA news agency's annual study, surpassing Manchester United, while Liverpool allocated the most first-team minutes to their homegrown players in the 2024/25 season.
Cobham, Chelsea's training ground, has indeed delivered. Over the course of the season, twenty graduates from Chelsea's academy made appearances in the top flight, clocking up a total of 28,524 minutes.
This was two more players and over 5,000 minutes more than any other academy. Manchester City came second in both categories, with 18 players playing a combined 23,462 minutes, pushing United into third place.
Chelsea captain Reece James, along with fellow defenders Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah, played significant roles in securing their side's Champions League qualification. All three also earned spots in the latest England squad.
However, Chelsea's academy also produced regular first-team players for other Premier League clubs.
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Newcastle full-backs Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall, Nottingham Forest pair Ola Aina and Callum Hudson-Odoi, Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi, Tottenham striker Dominic Solanke and Aston Villa's Ian Maatsen all played over 1,000 minutes. On the opposite end of the spectrum, fellow Cobham graduate Michael Golding played for just 45 seconds for Leicester as a substitute against Southampton – the shortest playing time for any player in the Premier League this season.
For Newcastle, it was a 30th placed-finish, beaten by a host of their rivals and also clubs from outside of the Premier League – Ajax and Barcelona in fifth and sixth positions, with Championship sides Leeds and Hull flanking ninth-placed Anderlecht.
Man United found themselves trailing their Manchester rivals after offloading Scott McTominay to Napoli, with Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho often sidelined.
Arsenal, ranked fourth, saw a significant boost from the rise of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, nearly doubling their total from 11,869 minutes to 21,894.
Liverpool secured the seventh spot, while the rest of the top 10 comprised clubs outside the Premier League – Ajax and Barcelona in fifth and sixth positions, with Championship sides Leeds and Hull flanking ninth-placed Anderlecht.
Benfica were 12th, Sheffield United 13th, Genk 15th and the likes of Rennes (20th) and Fluminense (22nd) producing academy players who played more minutes than the 6,334 from Newcastle's Benton academy.
Liverpool gave the most playing time to homegrown players in the 2024-25 Premier League, while Manchester United used the most graduates of their own academy, with eight.
Liverpool's title victory was largely driven by their own academy, with homegrown players making up 16.7 per cent of their playing time.
Trent Alexander-Arnold led the charge with 2,575 minutes, while Curtis Jones and Caoimhin Kelleher also surpassed 1,000 and Conor Bradley and Jarell Quansah played substantial roles.
Viteszlav Jaros and Jayden Danns also made appearances, but Liverpool's seven homegrown players were outdone by Manchester United's eight. Garnacho, Kobbie Mainoo, Rashford, Jonny Evans, Toby Collyer, Chido Obi, Tyler Fredricson and McTominay collectively clocked up 6,292 minutes for their formative club, accounting for 15.2 per cent of United's playing time.
Chelsea's third-placed tally of 6,150 minutes, or 14.7 per cent, was led by Colwill, Chalobah and James.
Six clubs allocated over 10 per cent of playing time to homegrown players, with Crystal Palace just shy of that mark. This included five of the traditional 'big six', with Tottenham being the only exception.
Newcastle were 12th in the Premier League rankings, with just 1,326 minutes made up from just two players - Sean Longstaff (939), and Lewis Miley (387). Longstaff's future remains uncertain but Miley will be hoping to get more minutes for the first team next season.
Both Chelsea and Manchester City fielded six homegrown players each. Southampton had five – as did Spurs, though Mikey Moore, Brandon Austin, Dane Scarlett, Will Lankshear and Alfie Dorrington only managed a combined total of 602 minutes on the pitch.
Brentford's sole representative league-wide was Ryan Trevitt, who became their first homegrown player in the history of the PA academy study when he played eight minutes against Spurs in September.
This left Wolves as the only team not to field a homegrown player, although they did have Luke Cundle, Wesley Okoduwa and Tom Edozie in matchday squads as unused substitutes.