Sam progressed through the youth set up with relative ease, graduating as a third year scholar and becoming reserve team captain in the process. Sam was to turn professional in 2006, but suffered injuries during both the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons, which hindered his progress into the first team despite then manager Jose Mourinho claiming he would be a future Chelsea first team player.
Sam's breakthrough came in 2007, when he made his debut on the final game of the season against Everton and signed a new four year deal with the club.
Sam was taken on the pre-season tour to America, sadly, after just a handful of reserve team appearances Sam would face another injury that would limit his season to just six reserve team appearances.
Sam couldn't be kept down for long, back in the first team squad in early 2009, Sam would again travel with the first team to America and made appearances in pre-season friendlies against the Seattle Sounders and Club America.
Sam then got his second Chelsea appearance, coming on against local rivals Fulham in late August. A month later, and Sam got his first start for Chelsea against QPR in the Carling Cup, a game Chelsea won 1-0. Sam made his final Chelsea first team appearance in a 7-0 win over Stoke, where he assisted Frank Lampard to score the final goal.
Injury however, would get the better of Sam, as aged just 21 he decided to retire from football due to his prolonged knee injury, sustained over the previous three years. But Sam didn't leave Chelsea, he stayed working in the academy while studying Sports Science and aiming to earn coaching qualifications.
That would have been the end for Sam, you would have thought. But at the start of this season, Sam returned to the Chelsea reserve team after recovering from his knee injury, after keeping fit at the Chelsea academy while studying for his Sports Science qualification, playing 45 minutes in a 6-1 defeat to Crawley Town.
On the 3rd of October, Sam was back, captaining and playing 90 minutes in a reserve team match against Aston Villa. The knee-injury that he once thought ended his Chelsea career, was gone and yesterday Sam was offered a contract extension to stay at Chelsea for another 18 months.
The fact that Chelsea have stood by Sam even though he struggled with injury shows you how highly they rate the youngster. A few years ago he was nearly ready to step up and challenge John Terry, now he could be ready to take over from Terry, not only as a Chelsea player, but as our new Captain, Leader, Legend.
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