After going to Brazil to sign one youngster, national team Under-20 captain Andrey Santos, Chelsea have gone back for more, adding winger Angelo Gabriel to their squad.
There is an interesting contract between them. Central midfielder Andrey has only a handful of first division appearances to his name with Vasco da Gama -- one of the reasons he had to wait a few months for a work permit after being denied one in the winter transfer window.
Angelo is a few months younger -- he is not 19 until late December. But he is more experienced, with 129 senior games taking in first division and continental club tournaments. Nonetheless, Andrey has the momentum after helping Vasco get out of the second division, enjoying a superb South American Under-20 Championship, and getting into the starting XI for the senior Brazil side against Morocco in March. Angelo has stalled and much of this has to do with the nature of the club where he has been making his name.
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Pele, of course, played for Santos, and, with a stellar supporting cast turned them into surely the world's most famous Brazilian club. This was already a near miracle. It is one of football's happy coincidences that the Santos side Pele joined in the mid 1950s were at an unprecedented high. Because the club represents a city that, by Brazilian standards -- and when compared to the country's other historic sides -- is small. Even today the population of Santos does not reach half a million, overshadowed by the metropolis of Sao Paulo.
It is truly remarkable, and not to be taken for granted, that Santos were able to outperform the big city giants like Corinthians, Palmeiras and Sao Paulo. After Pele had gone the club inevitably slipped a little -- only to come roaring back in the 21st century as a consequence of excellent youth development work. Neymar and Rodrygo were Santos products, and they head a long list of graduates who have earned the club good money in the transfer market. But this is an approach with an obvious risk -- and the risks are getting bigger as money flows into the Brazilian game.
Gaps open up as the big clubs find ways to make money from the size of their support bases. It becomes harder for a club like Santos to compete -- especially as neither the fans nor many in the media understand the difficulties of the situation. Promising players are transferred, the next generation are thrown in early -- perhaps too early. Because the pressure keeps rising. Before they can find their feet they are expected to be superstars.
And this, surely, has been a problem for Angelo. In difficult circumstances, too much responsibility was thrown on his shoulders. A left-footed winger who operates cutting on from the right, Angelo has a breathtaking range of talent -- speed, balance and acceleration, close dribbling skills, the capacity to improvise at pace. He made his first division debut in October 2020 at age 15 and eleven days younger than Pele when he played his first match. Since that debut he has played under an astonishing seven different coaches, plus two caretakers, one of whom was in charge for three separate short spells.
This instability is a consequence of the instability of the club and the incapacity of many to accept the reality of the situation. Angelo's second coach, the Argentine Ariel Holan, was overwhelmed by the youngster's potential.
"He's going to be a great player," said Holan, enchanted with both Angelo's ability and his application. But Holan jumped ship after a couple of months. He saw the size of the task, and when protesting supporters set off fireworks close to his house, he decided that he had had enough.
Coaches have gone and gone since then, but little has changed. The club are currently obliged to play their home games behind closed doors in punishment at a recent bout of fan violence, and the current campaign will surely be a prolonged struggle against unprecedented relegation.
Right from day one Pele had the privilege of being surrounded by world class players who could help him develop as a professional footballer. Angelo has not been so lucky -- and his performances have paid the price. Before his move to Chelsea he had lost his place in the starting lineup of a struggling side, and was having to make do with occasional appearances off the bench.
Barcelona had an option to sign him, but declined to use it, thus opening the door for Chelsea -- who will now have to treat their new acquisition with care. There has been speculation that he will be loaned to Strasbourg. That could give him the chance of more game time -- but there is also the danger of loan moves, when the youngster feels abandoned, surplus to requirements at the club that have just signed him.
Plenty of careers have gone off the rails as a result. New Chelsea coach Mauricio Pochettino has a fine track record at developing young players. He has enough on his plate. But even if Angelo is loaned out, it would be in Chelsea's and Pochettino's interests to make him feel included, to give him the kind of structure that he has been lacking. If they get it right, then football fans all over the world might end up feeling grateful.