Both came on last night in the 1-0 Carling Cup victory over Norwich City, themselves with a former City Academy player amongst their ranks in Lee Croft, and it was Etuhu’s pinpoint pass that gave Georgios Samaras the chance to net the 90th minute winner.
A delighted Academy Manager, Jim Cassell, today told us: “It’s a terrific achievement and everyone is so pleased for Kelvin and Ched.
“Reaching a quarter of a century really is fantastic and everyone at the Club should be proud that we are producing such home grown talent.
“It’s a bonus for the Manager because as well as the players he has been able to bring in with the money he’s had over the summer, he knows that he can pick from the pot of talent we are hopefully continuing to bring through the Academy.”
And testament to the talent coming through, Jim added: “If you look at the team that started the FA Youth Cup Final against Liverpool in April 2006, six of the lads have played in the first team and another one, Sam Williamson was on the bench last night.”
As Cassell stated, Micah Richards and Michael Johnson have gone on to become firmly established in the Blues first team and Shaleum Logan has started and looked impressive in both Carling Cup games this season.
Along with last night’s debutants, Danny Sturridge completes the successes having made two substitute appearances for the Blues in the Premier League last season.
“We won’t rest on our laurels and the hope is that we continue to put players up that the Manager deems good enough to be involved in the first team squad,” concluded Cassell.
It certainly looks like carrying on that way as the current Under 18 side have only dropped two points from their opening six games this season.
They’ve scored one, two, three, four, five and seven goals in their fixtures so far and with Manchester United making the trip to Platt Lane on Saturday (kick-off 10am) the Blues youngsters would love to fill in that blank on their goal scoring sequence.
