Lampard knows Ajax are masters of youth development

Frank Lampard has received plenty of plaudits for the way he has blooded Chelseas youngsters this season, but he knows they are facing the masters of youth development in Amsterdam on Wednesday.The Blues, featuring academy graduates Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Reece James and Fikayo Tomori, have racked up five consecutive wins in all competitions and climbed into the top four after Saturdays victory over Newcastle.However, Ajax have long been famed for their youth policy and last season that exuberance swept them all the way to the semi-finals of the Champions League, where they were agonisingly pipped by Tottenham.Tammy Abraham is among the young players to make their mark at Chelsea this season (John Walton/PA)Chelsea have been building up their academy in recent years and this season, in part because of their transfer ban, it has borne fruit.But Lampard, speaking ahead of their Champions League Group H clash in the stadium named after Ajax and Hollands favourite football son Johan Cruyff, said: Theres along way to go to claim there are similarities.We have pride in the short term, but we shouldnt get carried away. Its great, the good feeling at the club in terms of the young players that have come through.But we are in a place here steeped in history of bringing young players through, creating great teams with groups of young players, and we have a long way to go to do that.Frank Lampard is an admirer of Ajaxs youth development programme (John Walton/PA)What Ajax did last year was incredible, to get as far as they did with such a young team.I think you see my belief in our young players because even though everyone says we had a transfer ban and its the only option I had, thats not true. I have lots of options in the squad.The young players have shown they should play and I believe in them. But it just the beginning of the road.Lampard was accused by one Dutch reporter of being scared of Ajax. The Blues boss laughed off the suggestion, insisting: Thats just my face!Ross Barkley misses the game with Ajax because of an ankle injury (Steven Paston/PA)But he added: I respect the team and Im very aware of the new threats they have. Its not a fact of being scared of Ajax, but we hugely respect them. We also have confidence in ourselves.It will be a really tough match against a team that we know how they performed last year and how theyve started this group, winning both games comfortably.I dont think our five wins mean anything, other than well have some confidence, but this will be a completely different challenge which obviously we need to be ready for.Ross Barkley did not travel after turning his ankle against Newcastle on Saturday, and NGolo Kante is still recovering from a groin problem.Theyre not here, said Lampard. Ross will hopefully be fit to train by the time we get back on Thursday. NGolo is training but well see how he is for the weekend, were not clear on that yet.(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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