Highlights

• Lewis Baker has had a career primarily in the Championship, with several loan spells and finally joining Stoke City in 2022.
• Izzy Brown's football career was cut short due to multiple injuries, leading to his retirement from professional football in 2023.
• Dominic Solanke, despite not establishing himself at Chelsea or Liverpool, has become one of the best English strikers in the Premier League with Bournemouth and earned a debut for the England national team in 2017.

Love him or loathe him, Jose Mourinho is one of the greatest managers of his generation. The Portuguese has managed Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea (again), Manchester United, Tottenham and now Roma. He’s tasted success almost everywhere he’s gone. Of course, his spell at Tottenham didn’t exactly go to plan but we can’t forget his previous successes.

He became a hero at Chelsea for winning consecutive league titles in 2005 and 2006 before returning to win the 2014/15 title. However, despite claiming 26 major trophies during his incredible managerial career, we know that he doesn’t always get it right. One example of that was at the start of the victorious 2014/15 season where he made a rather big prediction about three young Chelsea players. On the pre-season tour, he said:

“My conscience tells me that if, for example, [Lewis] Baker, [Izzy] Brown and [Dominic] Solanke are not national team players in a few years, I should blame myself. They are part of a process the club started without me. At this moment, we have players who will be Chelsea players. And when they become Chelsea players, they will become England players, almost for sure.”

You probably don’t need telling but Mourinho’s prediction didn’t exactly go to plan. But what has happened to the three mentioned players? Well, let’s take a look...

Lewis Baker

Baker has spent the majority of his career in the Championship

Baker has spent virtually his entire career out on loan, featuring for Sheffield Wednesday, Milton Keynes Dons, Vitesse, Middlesbrough, Leeds United, Reading, Fortuna Düsseldorf and Trabzonspor. The English midfielder finally left Chelsea in 2022 when he joined Stoke City in a permanent deal.

Baker played twice for the Blues - both in the FA Cup. His debut came in January 2014 when he came on for the final three minutes against Derby. His second appearance for the club came eight years later when he came on as a 59th minute substitute against Chesterfield.

He did manage to earn 17 caps for England U21s, scoring eight goals, but is yet to play for the senior side. It is very unlikely that he ever makes an appearance, but you can never say never.

Izzy Brown

Brown is no longer in football after suffering a plethora of injuries

Brown also spent much of his Chelsea career out on loan at Vitesse, Rotherham, Huddersfield, Brighton, Leeds, Luton and Sheffield Wednesday. He actually played in the Premier League as he came off the bench for 11 minutes on the final day of the title-winning 2014/15 season.

Brown signed for Preston on a free transfer in the summer of 2021 but injuries meant he was released a year later without making a single appearance for the club. Sadly, Brown announced his retirement from professional football in April 2023 due to his injury woes. Brown went into detail about his struggle with injuries and his decision to retire in an emotional interview with The Athletic.

He said: “We had a pre-season game against Celtic when I was at Preston and I felt some pain in my Achilles, but it wasn’t too bad. Then we had a couple of days off, I came back for training and then I just passed the football, like I’d done a million times before, and I heard a pop. I thought someone had kicked me but no one was around me.

“It had snapped. So I had the surgery and it went well, but we noticed there was like a little gap in my Achilles. We thought maybe it’s not healed properly, but this was only after two months so we gave it time. Then I went out for some dinner and stepped down a small step and it snapped again.

“So I had two Achilles surgeries in the space of three and a half months. To come back from one is hard. To come back from two is basically impossible. If I go for a long walk now, it’s a bit sore when I get back, but I can’t sprint or jump and the doctors say they don’t think I’ll ever really be able to do that. And while I was injured I got sick with hand, foot and mouth disease.

“Then I had a problem with my nervous system. I started to lose muscle in my lower leg and it affected all the nerves in my feet. My feet were cold. I couldn’t move my toes — it was quite serious. I saw a lot of neurologists and had so many tests — I was thinking the worst because, at the time, I couldn’t even lift my foot up or do a calf raise.”

Speaking about his life after football, he added:

"Everything is new to me now. The world is new now I’m not seeing it from a football perspective. I can go and enjoy things I’ve never been able to enjoy before and go to places I never got a chance to go to. I’m going to take some time for myself and have a think if I want to be involved in football again. Football was my dream. It still is my dream. But dreams have to end one day.”

Dominic Solanke

Solanke is now one of the best English strikers in the Premier League

Solanke left Chelsea in 2017 with one appearance to his name - a 17-minute Champions League cameo during a 6-0 victory over Maribor in 2014. After a loan at…you guessed it…Vitesse, he left Chelsea in 2017 for Liverpool where he went on an infamous goal drought of 26 matches before scoring in his 27th - on the final day of the Premier League season.

He moved to Bournemouth for around £19 million in January 2019. He fired in 29 league goals in the 2021/22 season to lead The Cherries back to the Premier League. Solanke was instrumental as Bournemouth secured their Premier League status in the 2022/23 campaign, scoring six times in 33 matches, and he has been in even better goalscoring form in 23/24.

Solanke may not have established himself as a regular at Chelsea but Mourinho did get it right when he said the Reading-born striker would play for England. He made his Three Lions debut all the way back in 2017 when he played 15 minutes in a friendly against Brazil at Wembley. Solanke is still waiting for his second cap but, if he continues to impress in the Premier League with Bournemouth, he could force his way into Gareth Southgate's plans.