Jose Mourinho has said up to four youth players will be given the chance to impress in the Chelsea first team next season.
Chelsea's youth setup has impressed of late, and on Monday they beat Manchester City 3-1 in the first leg of the FA Youth Cup by defeating final, having won the competition last season.
The likes of Isaiah Brown, 18, and Dominic Solanke, 17, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, 19, have all been tipped for bright futures.
And last month Mourinho revealed he expects Loftus-Cheek to compete for a starting place next season.
The Chelsea boss said in the Daily Mail before Monday's victory over Chelsea: "I cannot have a squad of 10 men and 10 kids.
"Next season, Ruben will not be a kid in the development process. He will be a first-team player, absolutely ready to play and compete. And we will do the same with two or three or four players.
"Some of the older ones will go on loan to play every game in the Championship or the Premier League, even abroad. And we will bring some of the younger ones into the process. But to have them all at the same time in the first-team squad is hard.
"I cannot have a squad of 10 men and 10 kids. I must have a squad like we have now of 16 or 17 seniors and three or four kids.
"From that team that won the UEFA Youth League, four belong to my squad. Four are my players, first-team players who train with the first-team every day and develop with the first-team. When they're not selected with the first-team -- and normally they're not selected -- they go back and play there.
"Their development is easier when they're training every day with the first-team, doing preseason, playing some matches, playing 20 minutes or half an hour in an FA Cup match, Capital One Cup match, even a Champions League match or in the league now and again.
"They belong to a process. I can't have 10 of these young players in my squad but I can have three or four and we did that with Loftus-Cheek, Brown, [Andreas] Christensen and [Nathan] Ake -- and Solanke a few times."
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