O'Neil: Delighted For Compton and Mendel, Academy Important For the Club
Manager Gary O’Neil was delighted to give youngsters Tudor Mendel and Charlie Compton their senior debuts as subs in last night’s 3-1 Carabao Cup victory over Leicester City, and believes it’s important that the academy produces players for the first team.
Wideman Mendel (pictured below, right, celebrating Marcelino Nunez’s injury-time goal) was introduced from the bench on 80, while central midfielder Compton (above) made his bow for the final couple of minutes of injury time.
Mendel, 21, joined the Blues from Anderlecht in September 2024 and has been a regular in the U21s since then, often catching the eye with his goals and wing play.
A former England U15 and U17 international during his time with Chelsea, Mendel left West London for the Brussels-based club in July 2023 and featured for their reserves side, RSCA Futures, which plays in the Belgian second tier, before making his move to Suffolk.
Hailing from Bottisham, Compton, 18, was with West Suffolk side Exning United, then joined Norwich City as an U9, before moving to the Blues’ youth set-up in the summer of 2024. He signed a three-year professional deal in February 2025.
“Fantastic,” O’Neil said after the match when asked about giving the pair their senior debuts. “They’ve had a good pre-season. They’ve both been with us pretty much since the start. Charlie a little bit through necessity to start with because we had some terrible injuries in the midfield over the summer with Azor [Matusiwa] and Jack [Taylor, who both underwent surgery at the end of last season].
“But once he was with us, he earnt the right to stay with us for a bit and he did really well.
“I didn’t want to put him on too early tonight. He hasn’t done loads senior football-wise, he’s young, so I didn’t want to put him into too much of a high pressure situation, so I was delighted when it got to 3-1 to let him go out and experience it because he’s earned it over the last seven weeks.
“Tudor is a bit further along in his development, probably. I knew we might have an opportunity to get him some minutes today. Wasn’t nervous about it at all, knew that he could cope, knew that he could play on the right side, I like to have my wingers on the opposite side to get us back in, so a left-footer on that side helped us.
“Delighted for them, delighted for everyone in the academy, who do some unbelievable work. Late nights on the astro, providing fantastic facilities and sessions for the boys and to have two players around the Premier League squad is a credit to everyone that’s done the work all the way through the years.
“To get the lads in and around it, it’s so important to the football club that we produce because Premier League players, they’re £20 million each at the moment to buy one, so if you can produce your own it saves you a lot of money. Even producing one that can be in and around it and be good enough is fantastic.
“Hopefully, that gives everyone a little bit of hope back there, all the work they’re doing is appreciated, keep it going. If the boys are good enough, they’ll definitely get a chance to play under me.
“Really appreciative of everyone, really. As I’ve said, it’s going to take everyone at the football club pushing in the same direction, from the academy, the foundation, starters, non-starters, everyone around the training ground. It’s a massive effort this year. Recruitment team, everyone’s just working so many hours, so hard to give us an opportunity to stay in the best league in the world and to be competitive.
“Let’s see. Next week’s going to big for us, performance-wise and recruitment-wise. I’ll be pleased when the window closes so we can settle down and we can put together a good season, hopefully.”
Photo: Matchday Images
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