It’s irrelevant when rumours start. What’s relevant is that he was no longer on the payroll of Manchester United. He was clubless when he signed in SA
Boehly is going to ruin Chelsea (hopefully)
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But even the PSG loan that ultimately failed due to a delayed e-mail included a a couple million euros loan fee for half a season and the loan club taking on the player's full wages though?
Ziyech had two years left on his deal with us. Worst case scenario we ship him out on loan with two different clubs and bank a few mil loan fees for each season. Either way we get at least something for him. The saudis paying £8m is absolute peanuts.
Wouldnt worse case scenario be, he stays at Chelsea for the two years, you pay him the full wages and make nothing?
Hudson-Odoi is now next
how many players can they sell to Saudi for inflated prices before they end up on some watch list?Ronaldo going to Saudi is like Kante going to Saudi. Free agents choosing their next clubs themselves. Ronaldo is irrelevant to a discussion about player sales and circumventing FFP etc.
Well duh. But that was obviously never going to happen, now was it? Club wanted him gone, player wanted to go.
In terms of staying, its happened before. So if its possible it can happen, it is a worse case compared to the one you wanted.
And also in terms of the budget youre working with. I havent seen any other clubs come in for him (and theres a chance it might have happened late into the window). But theres always a risk and chance of him staying / getting a fresh look under a new manager.
based on that, its a possibility, so saying 'never' is not exactly true, is it?
Ziyech staying for 2 years would be just be awkward and just another player who needs to considered by the coach but i think that’s the extent of the problem with him staying. I don’t think he’s a huge hit on the books anymore. Neither was Mendy. Koulibaly was the big elephant in the room.
Chelsea should absolutely sell Mount and Havertz this season. They will be going for peanuts next year. Fleece some club while you can.
It will be a great window for them if they can offload a semi-retired Kante on huge wages, skinny Ziyech, overvalued Havertz, marathon-runner Mount, overrated Koulibaly, out-of-form Mendy, slow Kovacic, perennially injured Pulisic, out-of-sorts Aubameyang, loanee João Felix, and overrated Chalobah.
Wow that's a full squad of 11 players! Who did I miss? Oh, yes, finally offload never-won-anything manager Pochettino.
It will be a great window for them if they can offload a semi-retired Kante on huge wages, skinny Ziyech, overvalued Havertz, marathon-runner Mount, overrated Koulibaly, out-of-form Mendy, slow Kovacic, perennially injured Pulisic, out-of-sorts Aubameyang, loanee João Felix, and overrated Chalobah.
Wow that's a full squad of 11 players! Who did I miss? Oh, yes, finally offload never-won-anything manager Pochettino.
He was on loan because you couldn’t sell him though. Add this to Koudibaly who’s going for what? Reported 30m? They’re 38m alone between two players you couldn’t sell because of their wages which adds up to another 20m saved between just these two players.
Now CHO is lined to Saudi Arabia as well you have to see it more as an accumulative effort than pointing out individual savings.
The odd bluff would be smart, oh we’re interested in Reece James or somebody but no. It’s all players that have no part of your first 11 or bench being cleared out for you.
I get you. In terms of the one player in isolation its awkward. What was he on, 5m a year? So worst case is an unwanted player, taking a space costing 10m over two years. Getting 8m instead is damn useful.
I know most chelsea fans wont want to actively discuss it, but managing to sell 3-4 unwanted players within the space of a few days to the same league, should at least be raising some eyebrows rather than (nothing to see here or coming up with every excuse or reason). TBF, I think you specifically have.
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Im not saying its illegal, because its clearly not. But its very very helpful. In fact if they had paid you 30m for Ziyech ,it would certainly raise bigger questions (but who is to determine the price other than the buyer / seller much like when we paid an eyebrow raising 80m for Antony or Maguire)
Theres an element of all factors aligning here, player wanting to move and being comfy (their religion might help, but the money / wages will certainly help), the club(chelsea) needing them gone ASAP and the league (Saudi) wanting higher profile players.
I wouldnt complain if United managed to shift about 5-6 players to the saudi league, or wherever we can get buyers to improve the budget on offer. However if we randomly sold players in the next week to the Qatar league, and then were taken over by Qatar, it would certainly be questionable for me.
Fee for Koulibaly is £17M.
They should investigate man City as well. They are buying Kovasic for 25 mn from Chelsea. How can city help chelsea?
That’s not what I’m reading
Very good sales from Chelsea so far.
Whether this is paying back their lucrative summer last year, or are they setting up a big one this summer again…
Annoyingly, makes it all the more likely Caicedo going there.
Whether this is paying back their lucrative summer last year, or are they setting up a big one this summer again…
Annoyingly, makes it all the more likely Caicedo going there.
I know right! So many other fanbases were gutted that a Saudi club snapped up Koulibaly when their own club should've been in for him. Same as the Kovacic situation really.They should investigate man City as well. They are buying Kovasic for 25 mn from Chelsea. How can city help chelsea?
Havertz to Arsenal for £65m.
Never scored double figures in the PL.
19 PL goals in three seasons.
Never scored double figures in the PL.
19 PL goals in three seasons.
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What are you reading?
Taken Boehly a year to fully get the selling side of the game.
A decade in and our owners are still clueless.
A decade in and our owners are still clueless.
I hear you and for sure eye brows raised is understandable. It is a case of interests aligning perfectly, as a Chelsea fan, shifting Koulibaly is a huge bonus that I thought was going to be a big problem for us for years but you just said there that you would find it questionable if Qatar buys United and then United sell 5-6 deadwoods to the Qatari league. So you’re equating PIF and Boehly investing in a hotel chain together away from football with outright ownership of a club, which I think is where I personally would push back against.
By all means, the conversation around skirting FFP, constantly finding loopholes and just being opportunistic all the time is fair and I even agree with some of that but some of conversations in here veers too much into some other extreme .
To get 17 million for Koulibaly and his wages off the books is incredibly lucky.
£65m for Havertz is absolutely outrageous
Genuinely thought we’d we stuck with him then he’d leave for like £20m next season.
Genuinely thought we’d we stuck with him then he’d leave for like £20m next season.
IT's incredibly bent is what it is.
Kante, Ziyech, Mendy and Koulibably all going to Saudi within a few weeks of Saudi's investing in Chelsea all seems a little bit suspect to me. I mean they're not even trying to hide it any more.
Come on. Less than 10m is pocket change, for a big 6 club. And it's not like Ziyech is a useless player - he'd be a real reinforcement for most clubs playing in the CL. If anything, it's a bit outrageous a player like him doesn't command a more significant fee than that. I suppose that speaks to how the difference in wages between big and not-big European clubs distorts the transfer market.
The Saudis have obviously found a nice niche, where PL-level spending power unrelated to football revenue allows them to outcompete almost everyone in Europe for big-name talent. Worrying. And I can't say I'm overly impressed with players choosing to protect their earnings rather than take a pay cut to play at the highest level but for a somewhat less rich and big club. It's not like they're facing a choice between economic insecurity and affluence, they have all already made more than enough money to live in luxury for the rest of their lives.
Now you're just talking out of your arse.
1. Saudis have not invested in Chelsea but Clearlake. They don't own any shares in Clearlake either, they've merely hired Clearlake to invest some money for them.
2. Their involvement with Clearlake is by no means a new thing that just happened a few weeks ago like you seem to think. It's an ongoing business relationship that was already completely out in the open (even in the media) when Clearlake bought the club last year and it was deemed to be of no issue by the PL.
Chelsea with the FM trick of adding a new manager and buying all the players you want rid of
Now you're just talking out of your arse.
1. Saudis have not invested in Chelsea but Clearlake. They don't own any shares in Clearlake either, they've merely hired Clearlake to invest some money for them.
2. Their involvement with Clearlake is by no means a new thing that just happened a few weeks ago like you seem to think. It's an ongoing business relationship that was already completely out in the open (even in the media) when Clearlake bought the club last year and it was deemed to be of no issue by the PL.
So you reckon the connection with Clearlake, Saudi PIF and Chelsea is just a coincidence?
Nah im not saying PiF own chelsea, but thats where the eyebrow raising occurs.
However with all that said,
moving on Kante, Koulibaly , Mendy, Ziyech, Havertz, Kovacic and possibly CHO within a week of the window opening, getting between 100-150m for them all is fantastic stuff.
Thats wages freed, and a tighter squad for Poch to work with which will suit him more.
I didn't say that, did I? I just commented on the regularly appearing narrative that the Saudis somehow own (at least a part of) Chelsea, which is an allegation that quite simply just doesn't seem to hold any weight. Would recommend any sceptics to read the Athletic article I linked on here earlier today.
It's clear to me the Chelsea owners have a close relationship with the Saudis, thanks to their previous business deals together going back multiple years, and that relationship has now helped them negotiate some deals on the footballing side of things too.
The PIF suddenly deciding to inject £20 billion into Saudi football has feck all to do with Chelsea or the Chelsea owners. Now it just so happens we've got plenty of deadwood on our books and a massive summer clearout sale has already known to be on the cards for the last 4-5 months. It's possible thanks to their ongoing relationship that the Chelsea owners knew about PIF's big footballing investment plans in advance and could already start laying the groundwork on these deals behind the scenes to conclude them quickly once the money started flowing into the Saudi teams but I really don't think there's anything more sinister to it.
I used to do that 25 years ago. Can you still do it? I would have thought the new manager's board would sack him on the spot by now.I don't understand the Chelsea fans getting so weird and defensive about what's being said and deriding it by pretending people are portraying this as a conspiracy or corruption.
There's very obviously a case of conflict of interest. It's as clear as any case I've had to see, and anyone working in an area where CoI is a thing would recognise this too. It's not even complicated or complex - it's just CoI in its simplest form, and in many industries, it would be a breach of rules. It's not in football, so good for Chelsea, but pretending this is all just chance is silly.
There's very obviously a case of conflict of interest. It's as clear as any case I've had to see, and anyone working in an area where CoI is a thing would recognise this too. It's not even complicated or complex - it's just CoI in its simplest form, and in many industries, it would be a breach of rules. It's not in football, so good for Chelsea, but pretending this is all just chance is silly.
I imagine you can do. Haven’t played it in a good while though
I mean, kudos for getting something for those players, but those are pretty tiny figures relative to spend in the last 12 months.
Can someone remind me of the Boehly clause with the takeover? Can CFC just pretend the 600m of spend didn't happen for FFP?
Can someone remind me of the Boehly clause with the takeover? Can CFC just pretend the 600m of spend didn't happen for FFP?
8 mil for Ziyech and people are talking about conspiracies. Mental.
You’ve said a lot here without saying anything. You’re going to have to explain why its a conflict of interest from what you understand is going on. Because all this thread has been so far is numpty takes misinterpreting (intentionally?) a tweet that surfaced a few days ago.
I think most Chelsea fans are getting wound up more about people talking out of their arse like its fact than anything else.
You forgot about us scuppering a loan deal that would have expired this summer so we could set this up.
Before the window started I somewhat bought into the narrative that we would sell players on the cheap because all the clubs knew we were desperate to move players. I must say that whomever is handling our transfers is absolutely killing it. The wage bill reduction is absolutely insane.
I think there is just a lot of jealousy because so many oppo fans thought this window was going to be a struggle. A week more to go in June and over £100M in transfer fees and over £80M a year in wages reduced. Killing it, and we haven’t sold Mount yet for an outrageous fee with only a year left on his contract.
I think there is just a lot of jealousy because so many oppo fans thought this window was going to be a struggle. A week more to go in June and over £100M in transfer fees and over £80M a year in wages reduced. Killing it, and we haven’t sold Mount yet for an outrageous fee with only a year left on his contract.