Football: Duberry determined to bridge gap

HE IS the survivor, the one player of the 17 Chelsea have used this season to have come through the ranks, writes Glenn Moore. Michael Duberry has been involved with the club since he was 13, nine years ago, and is the only remaining graduate of the 1992 youth intake.

"It is hard to get in the team," he admitted yesterday. "The young players have a positive attitude but we are competing with internationals. It is a matter of being ready if the chance comes.

"But just because I have two World Cup winners [Marcel Desailly and Franck Lebouef] against me I'm not going to sit back and bide my time. I have to work for my place but I want Luca [Vialli] to be in the position of having to choose which one plays alongside me.

"I have really seen some changes here and it is a buzz for me to know I am part of one of Chelsea's most successful teams in their history.

"I now want to be part of a League-winning Chelsea team. I don't want to run away and think 'they won this, they won that'. I want to be part of it, be a leader in it. There's no point in me just lying down."