Woods: Michael James (Michael)

2005-2006 (Player Details)

Midfield

Born: York: 06-04-1990

Debut: Nil

6’0” 12st 6lb (2008)

After playing for England Youth while at Leeds, Woods turned down a scholarship from them to sign for Chelsea. Leeds United chairman Ken Bates accused Chelsea of tapping him up and the two clubs later agreed an out of court settlement for the player. Woods was capped sixteen times for the English Under-Seventeen team and scored four goals. He made his first-team debut for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge against Macclesfield Town in the Third Round of the FA Cup on 6th January 2006, making him the fourth-youngest player to ever play for Chelsea as he was then only sixteen years and two hundred and seventy-five days old. He came on as a substitute for Frank Lampard in the seventy-ninth minute. He currently has made two appearances for Chelsea in the FA Cup, after later appearing against Nottingham Forest, but has yet to make his EPL debut. Now in his fourth season with Chelsea, he is an energetic midfielder, who had made many appearances for the Chelsea Reserves, being an almost ever-present in 2006-07 but featured less than ten times in 2007-08, but was a vital member of the Youth team that went to the final of the F.A. Youth Cup, scoring a fine goal from outside the penalty area. 2008-09 was equally barren when a knee injury restricted his appearances to just seven games. Michael’s season peaked in September and went downhill from there. He started the Reserve season on fire, scoring in both the opening fixtures as a super-sub, having injured his thigh in pre-season. He settled into the midfield again, continuing to learn a more defensive role, but with the lack of Reserve team fixtures in England, really stagnated. A loan move to Scunthorpe ended up falling through, and at the turn of the year he suffered what appeared to be a ‘normal’ knee injury but ended up with damaged nerves which ended his season. He eased his way back to fitness in the pre-season games and became an England Under-Nineteen regular, having made five appearances. He was called up for the England Under-Twenty team for the 2009 World Cup. He is the nephew of Grimsby Town youth team coach Neil Woods.