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#3 Nathan Ake
Of all of the players on this list, it’s probably fair to state that central defender Nathan Ake has had the most fruitful career since leaving Chelsea. The Dutchman wasn’t technically produced by the Blues’ academy as he began his career in his native Netherlands with ADO Den Haag and then Feyenoord, but he still spent time with Chelsea’s youth side after moving there as a 16-year old in 2012.
Unfortunately, despite making his first senior appearance for the team as a 17-year-old in a 2012 Premier League match with Norwich, he quickly became a victim of Chelsea’s short-termism. Ake made 6 appearances for the side in 2012/13, but under new boss Jose Mourinho, his Chelsea career was restricted to just 2 Premier League appearances in the following two seasons.
The summer of 2015 saw him make a season-long loan move to Watford, and despite making 24 Championship appearances with the Hornets and winning their Young Player of the Season award, Chelsea then had another new manager – Antonio Conte – and so Ake was sent out on loan again, this time to Bournemouth.
The Dutchman made 10 appearances for the Cherries in 2016/17, scoring 3 goals – but despite being recalled by Chelsea in January, Conte still didn’t make use of him – he made just 5 more appearances for the Blues before moving on a permanent deal to Bournemouth in the summer of 2017 for a fee of £20m. And since then, Ake has gone on to become one of the Premier League’s most highly-rated young defenders.
Ake’s story with Chelsea may not yet be finished – the club did insert a buy-back clause into his contract with Bournemouth – but with Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma forming a strong defensive partnership under Lampard, and Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen also at Stamford Bridge, it’d be surprising to see the Blues make a move to bring him back. Had he stayed at Chelsea it’s practically a certainty that he’d be part of Lampard’s first team today.
