Ben Chilwell: A possible star in the making

[brucey]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/07/ben-chilwell-better-cricket-football-15-now-want-one-englands/

 

Ben Chilwell was still a teenager and yet to make his Leicester debut in the Premier League when Liverpool and Arsenal both made bids for him. Yet it is perhaps only now, at the age of 21, that we are finally seeing what all the fuss was about.

Chilwell’s 2018 will be remembered as a vintage year on a personal level and the last four months have been a whirlwind: he has played every minute in the league under Claude Puel, signed a new six-year contract and made his senior debut for England at the King Power in September.

He was a key figure in the stirring victories over Spain and Croatia in the Uefa Nations League and it is a sign of his growing confidence that he is aiming to nail down that left-back spot for the next 10 years.

Chilwell’s star is unquestionably on the rise, and ahead of Leicester’s date with Tottenham on Saturday, he is finally taking a breather to reflect on a tumultuous few months.

“It has all happened so fast. I’ve not had time to really step back and assess what was going on. After the Spain game it was only when I met up with my mum and dad and they said to me “I don’t think you understand how big a win that was’ that I took some of it in,” he says.

“I feel I’m having a great start to the season. I’ve been involved in all the games with Leicester and I always knew that I had my ability.

“To start games with England on top of that has been a massive confidence boost. The short-term aim is to keep playing well for Leicester and hopefully play well for England if I get the opportunity again soon.

“The long-term aim is obviously to be the first-choice left-back for ten years to come and be one of the best left-backs that England has ever had.”

It is that determination and drive which has enabled Chilwell to make such a breakthrough, after a summer of “minging running” around the parks of Milton Keynes in a bid to get himself in the best possible shape.

He returned for pre-season on a mission to make an impact but even he cannot have envisaged his progress. Equally comfortable going forward or playing in defence, he has been compared to Gareth Bale by former England under-21 team-mate Jack Grealish.

Chilwell epitomises England’s future under Southgate, and is at the core of Leicester’s emerging, young squad.

“If I look back four years, I would have been terrified to step up into the England set-up but it’s been very easy,” he says. “I know the majority of the squad from the 21s or playing against them. It is a lot of young players wanting to play football the same way, an ambitious manager, in a very relaxed environment.

“It’s very similar at Leicester and in the first game at Manchester United there were five of us aged 21. I remember talking to Dimi [Demarai Gray] and Madders [James Maddison] in the hotel before the game about how we were just itching to have a good game - if we can start well, we can build on it.

“A lot of credit goes to the manager [Puel] because he could have easily played more reliable players who maybe wouldn't make a mistake. He wanted to choose the younger players who could create something exciting going forward."

Leicester has been Chilwell’s club since the age of 12 and he credits his parents, Wayne and Sally, academy coaches and a loan spell at Huddersfield under David Wagner towards the end of 2015 as crucial.

Yet it could easily have been different. Chilwell almost chose cricket bats over boots at the age of 15, when he feared Leicester would release him. A place in the Northants academy and trials with England presented a dilemma.

“There was 100 per cent a choice, maybe I was even a better cricketer than footballer," he admits. “I was an all-rounder but more of a batsman, maybe second-choice bowler.

“But when I started playing men’s cricket I stopped enjoying it. They were long days. 50-over games, with men 15 years older you don’t really have anything in common with. They were all talking about going to the pub.

“I was enjoying my football, even though it wasn’t really going well. That’s when I said to my dad [Wayne], who as a New Zealander was very keen on me playing cricket, that I would choose football.”

Chilwell’s cricketing ability was revealed earlier this week on social media when a video emerged of him ruthlessly dispatching a Marc Albrighton full-toss, as a few Leicester players relaxed after a recovery session.

“Kasper [Schmeichel] was behind the stumps, the wicketkeeper chirping in my ear, giving me a bit,” he smiles. “Dimi was in the field, you don’t want to see him bowling. Wilfred [Ndidi] was the same. Madders was good, though, to be fair…”

If Chilwell presents a picture of contentment on an otherwise grey midwinter day at Leicester's training ground, there is another cloud hanging over him and the club which will take time to disperse.

It is nearly two months since the helicopter crash which claimed the life of Leicester's beloved owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other passengers outside the King Power Stadium. It was a tragedy which left a club and a city devastated, an unwanted reminder of how fragile life can be, two years after that remarkable title win.

“Vichai was such a good guy. He was always in the dressing room, always having a laugh with us," says Chilwell. “I remember when I went away with England last month, Harry Winks told me a story that [Heung-min] Son was in a London restaurant and Vichai was there as well.

“At the end of Son's meal he'd gone to pay his bill and Vichai had paid for everyone in the restaurant. I think that alone shows the person he was.

“Looking back now, it's brought us together as a family so much more. We're not just teammates now. I'd say the bond in that dressing room now is something that we're probably never going to experience again. A tragedy like that has really brought us together so much.”

Vichai’s memory is driving Chilwell, and Leicester, on towards the ambition for this season and beyond.

“We want to keep pushing forward and achieve what he would have wanted, which is to be playing in Europe. I think that's the ultimate, to be consistently one of the best teams in the country and over the next few years that's going to be our aim to try and do that,” he said.

“The position we are in at the moment in the table [ninth] is quite realistic. We are aiming for seventh.

“We know what Vichai's dreams and ambitions were for the club, it's up to us now to make them happen.”

[Harry96]

Great interview 

[brucey]

Another one

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6472163/Ben-Chilwell-playing-Dele-Alli-training-countryside-England-heroics.html

 

In one way Ben Chilwell is right when he contemplates his emergence to England importance, puffs his cheeks and says: ‘It has all happened so fast.’

He watched the summer’s World Cup at home and only got his first call-up in September because of injuries. But after impressing in the victories over Spain and Croatia, where he set up Harry Kane’s winner with a brilliant free-kick, the left-back role is suddenly his to lose.

In another sense though, this has been a long time in the making. At 15, Chilwell thought he was getting cut from Leicester’s academy, but survived, and resolved to practise alone in his local park to better his technique and go running through the Northamptonshire countryside to improve his fitness.

In the summers he would play five-a-side football in Milton Keynes against another talented resident of the town, a certain Dele Alli, and eventually became the player everybody at Leicester whispered excitedly about.

Chilwell admits dislodging Christian Fuchs took longer than he would have liked, even accepting the Austrian’s title medal, but now, at 21, he has played every minute of this Premier League campaign and is aiming to become a permanent fixture for his country too.

‘The short-term aim is just to keep playing well for Leicester and hopefully I can be involved for England in March and then the summer in the Nations League,’ Chilwell says.

‘The long-term aim is to be the first-choice left-back for 10 years to come and be one of the best left-backs that England has ever had. That’s in the back of my head.’

If those words strike as confident, it must be said Chilwell is simply speaking as he thinks, without a hint of arrogance. He has ambition and belief but is equally frank when touching on his occasional failings last season.

He says: ‘I had games where I thought: “What was I doing there?” I watched them back a few days after and it’s frustrating because you know that’s not the kind of stuff you do.

‘The Everton game was the main one for me. I made a mistake which cost us the first goal, maybe it was even my mistake for the second goal as well.’

Open talking has been a theme of England’s resurgence under Gareth Southgate, and Chilwell is an excellent fit for a dynamic national team.

The origins of his honesty trace back to those days when his dad Wayne would taxi him to and from Leicester training, the 50 or so miles of M1 giving chance for much conversation. Wayne is a builder from New Zealand who met Chilwell’s mum Sally while travelling 25 years ago, deciding to relocate to England but keeping a Kiwi mentality for telling it straight.

‘At Under-15s we trained Tuesdays and Thursdays after school, and Thursdays was when we would find out the squad for Saturday,’ says Chilwell. ‘I remember every Thursday getting back in the car and my dad would turn round to me, “Are you in the squad this week?” “Nope.” And we would argue the whole way home.

‘My dad was very hard on me. “You’re being a bit lazy. You’re probably more bothered about hanging out with your mates.” He got into me.

‘That’s when I started going to the park practising, going for runs, on my own. Sometimes a few hours. I was quite lucky, because I live near the countryside so there was endless places I could go running and it wasn’t boring.’

Anyone who has watched Chilwell play will recognise those bursts down the pitch that seem like they could go on forever. It is funny to find out though that he began life as a midfielder, first at Rushden and Diamonds before the club went bust, and then Leicester when he went on trial age 12.

He says: ‘Because someone got injured the manager said, “Ben you’re going to play the second half at left-back.” It was my first game for the club, I didn’t know any of the boys, so I just remember running up and down the line. It ended up suiting me.’

Those small-sided games against a contemporary in Milton Keynes by the name of Dele suited him too.

‘Probably until two years ago we were going to Power League every summer, texting, “Shall we go in today?”

‘It was a good standard. As well as Dele there was Brendan Galloway, George Williams, Giorgio Rasulo.

‘At the time it was just fun but looking back it probably did help, because you’re playing with good quality players. It was pretty competitive, there were always tackles flying about.’

It has therefore been a neat turn of events bringing Chilwell and Dele back together with England, a set-up that the Leicester player says is ‘very easy’ to enter.

‘The training is intense, the matches are intense, the meetings are intense, but when you are not doing all of that you feel like you are away with your mates, watching a film, chilling, whatever.

‘Dele was in charge of movie night, he chose Four Lions. I didn’t particularly like it.’

Chilwell enjoyed the reaction to his breakthrough performance in Seville, however. ‘The changing room was buzzing, but it was when I met up with my mum and dad the next day, they said to me, “I don’t think you understand how big a win that was.”’

Chilwell has natural sporting talent, good enough to be in Northants cricket academy as an all-rounder. But he needed a loan at Huddersfield to confirm his football pedigree.

Aged 18 he was David Wagner’s first signing at the club in 2015 and it proved a mutually beneficial relationship: Chilwell got Championship matches in his legs; Huddersfield proved they could look after Premier League players, securing more loans and winning promotion.

‘I learnt a lot in the two months I was there,’ Chilwell says. ‘Every game mattered, not like Under-21s football. Coming off the pitch, after a loss, there were arguments in the dressing room.

‘And David really wanted us to play football. I remember one game against Bolton, on Boxing Day, we were just booting it. We were 1-0 up but he came into the dressing room and spent the whole half-time screaming at us!’

An injury to Jeff Schlupp meant Leicester recalled Chilwell that January, transporting him into the midst of an extraordinary title challenge. ‘To be honest, I was actually quite disappointed,’ he admits. ‘I know we were near the top of the league but I was enjoying it at Huddersfield so much and wanted to play a whole season.

‘But it was nice to be around the atmosphere of a team winning the Premier League at those odds.’

It was at this stage that Arsenal and Liverpool attempted to sign Chilwell. Leicester resisted, even if Fuchs remained first choice. Chilwell had to wait until Boxing Day 2016 to make the first of seven Premier League starts that season.

‘It was difficult, mentally, to keep motivated,’ he admits. ‘It took longer than I would have liked to be playing week in week out but that’s credit to Fuchsie of how well he was playing.’

Chilwell gave a statement of his vast potential when coming off the bench in the Champions League quarter-final to deeply trouble Atletico Madrid, almost scoring, and Claude Puel now trusts him totally.

This summer Chilwell pushed himself. Back to the park, taking a friend too for days of ‘horrible running’ timed by his dad. He returned fitter than ever. ‘That obviously gave me the confidence going into the season,’ he says.

Nothing though could have prepared him for the night of October 27, and it is clear the effects of the disaster that claimed the life of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others are still being felt. In January, Chilwell mourned the loss of Cyrille Regis, who had become a close mentor, so for all the highs it has been a tough year too.

Chilwell is solemnity defined as he reflects. ‘I’d left the stadium, Harry Maguire rang me and said: “Have you heard?” Then it got put in the group chat. The Monday was horrible. It was the coldest, hardest thing – no one was talking.

‘I’m sure other football clubs would say they don’t even know who their owners are. But he was so involved, not just financially, but if we weren’t playing well he’d come in and say: “You need to be doing this.” He was so passionate.’

Chilwell tells a story related to him last month by Harry Winks, that Heung-min Son had been in a London restaurant and seen Vichai. When it came to paying the bill Son was told the Leicester owner had already paid for the whole restaurant.

A beautifully moving tribute video was made for the Burnley home game but shown to the players a few days before. ‘The day of the game would have been too emotionally upsetting,’ Chilwell says. ‘It was just silence for a few minutes after. A lot of the boys are still gathering themselves – it’s such a shock.

‘You see Top [Vichai’s son, Aiyawatt] come into the changing room before the game and for a split-second you think: “Where’s Vichai?” It’s just really weird.’

So, where do Leicester go from here? ‘Up, 100 per cent,’ Chilwell insists without hesitation. ‘We’re more together now than we’ve ever been. Top is so behind us. We know what Vichai’s dreams were for the club, to be consistently one of the best in the country, so it’s up to us to make that happen.’

[Mayofox]

....and there's another article in the Guardian (basically see above).

[TheSomersetFox]

Great interview. Credit to Claude for sticking with him when many wouldn’t have. And full credit to Chillers for working his bollocks off and becoming a brilliant full back

[dmayne7]

Think he's not been as effective the last few games yet still played well. That alone says how fantastic his form has been this season.

[baldeagle]

Suddenly the golden poster boy for the media and quite rightly so as he’s done really well .I just hope he doesn’t take his eye of off the ball because of all the hype . 

[urban.spaceman]

On 19/11/2018 at 15:01, Peckfortonfox said:

Spurs fans reckon they can get him for 25million

That is ****ing adorable. 

[CloudFox]

Really pleased for him and proud of him. Saying all the right things about the club too, which is lovely to see.

 

Go on Chilly ??

[m4DD0gg]

Player of the season for me so far and 2nd fave player behind vardy

[RumbleFox]

So happy for him regarding his progress.  I think he has been our best player this season.  I like the fact he looks and feels like a senior player now.  It shows you that young players need time and support.  Onwards and upwards.  X

[turtmcfly]

Interesting parallels with Vardy (the intensive off-season training leading to a step-change in performance) and also his comment about wanting to stay out on loan for the season at Huddersfield, given the on-going debate (on here at least) about bringing e.g. Barnes back.

 

 

[Tringfox]

16 hours ago, Goober said:

Great interview. Credit to Claude for sticking with him when many wouldn’t have. And full credit to Chillers for working his bollocks off and becoming a brilliant full back

Oh dear man Chillers? Do people actually call him that? Sends chillers up my spine how cringey it is!

[fazzyfox]

I really can see it being Spurs who come in and bid for him, he'd fit with the other young England players like Winks and Alli and would be an improvement on their LB's but we and he can say no. They might offer Rose in part exchange but no thanks. Hope he has a ruck with a few of them today to put him off them!

[Guest Col city fan]

On 25/11/2018 at 20:58, Col city fan said:

Man City have just lost their left back for a long time, following surgery. I bet Pep would love Chilwell.

[UniFox21]

And this sums up the problem with the premier league. 

 

A player has a great start to the season with a mid-table team or lower. All of the big teams suddenly linked. 

 

The big teams almost can't bare for other teams to have good players and hoards them. 

[Grebfromgrebland]

This speculation will help unsettle him before we play them twice too. With the help of the papers.

[Cincinnati Fox]

41 minutes ago, UniFox21 said:

And this sums up the problem with the premier league. 

 

A player has a great start to the season with a mid-table team or lower. All of the big teams suddenly linked. 

 

The big teams almost can't bare for other teams to have good players and hoards them. 

And then the media slam teams for not challenging the top 6

[UniFox21]

3 minutes ago, Peckfortonfox said:

And then the media slam teams for not challenging the top 6

Whilst also slamming the teams for holding back talent and not selling their best players

[weller54]

Manchester city to offer 50m?.. 

Deal... If they take Iheanacho back and give us our money back! 

[AlloverthefloorYesNdidi]

3 minutes ago, weller54 said:

Manchester city to offer 50m?.. 

Deal... If they take Iheanacho back and give us our money back! 

Maybe we can do a deal where they let us play Aguero up top for a month or two, just so we can know for sure if a top striker could flourish in our systém or not  

[fox_favourite]

He's currently suffering with an unusual injury. 

 

What's a kneww injury? 

[Grebfromgrebland]

50M is definitely not enough for chilwell!

[Clarkey123]

Never going to be the next Gareth bale but a cracking player nonetheless, hope he stays here for the next few years along with the likes of Maddison and challenge for Europe year in year out 

[foxile5]

1 hour ago, Peckfortonfox said:

And then the media slam teams for not challenging the top 6

And makes the player feel obligated to move.