Jose Mourinho Insists Work is Being Done to Get More Home-grown Talent into Chelsea First Team

Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea are already in the process of changing their approach to promoting home-grown talent to the first team.

The Blues were praised for their quick and decisive moves in the summer transfer market that saw Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas, Filipe Luis, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy added to the club's ranks.

Those additions were coupled with a succession of loan moves that saw 26 players leave Stamford Bridge on temporary deals - but that left the club with just three players who qualify as home-grown in Fabregas, John Terry and Gary Cahill.

Mourinho accepts this imbalance must be addressed but believes the club are making the right moves in ensuring more domestic players are handed chances, pointing to the inclusion of 19-year-old Lewis Baker as a sign of the club's intentions.

When quizzed on criticism of the club's lack of home-grown players, Mourinho told Eurosport: "We are trying to do that. We are trying to work well in our academy and recently, just last week, we moved one of our foreign players and we brought to the first-team squad Lewis Baker, a 19-year-old English player, so step by step, we are trying to do that."

Baker enjoyed a sublime campaign for Chelsea's Under-21 side last term, winning the club's young player of the season award as he played an instrumental role in the Under-21 Premier League success, where he also finished as their top scorer.

On the same day he was named in the first-team squad, the midfielder was also named captain of Aidy Boothroyd's England Under-20 side.

Mourinho included the trio of Baker, Izzy Brown, 17, and Dominic Solanke, 16, in the club's pre-season tour and made no secret of his admiration for the teenage players.

"My conscience tells me that if, for example, Baker, Brown and Solanke are not national team players in a few years, I should blame myself," the Blues manager said in July.

While new signing Fabregas qualifies for the Premier League's home-grown quota thanks to his eight years at Arsenal, Mourinho has been forced to top up his squad with players from the club's Under-21 ranks this term.

The departures of Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole, Victor Moses, Ryan Bertrand and Nathaniel Chalobah – the latter three on loan deals – took the biggest the toll on the club's attempt to strike a balance between foreign and home-grown talent.