Chelsea 2024/25

Maatsen
Guehi
Tomori
Ake
Liveramento

Hudson-Odoi
Gilmour
Gallagher
Olise
Mount
Rice

Solanke
Abraham
Nketiah

All from the academy and all no longer at the club.

Is the above much worse than they’ve spent billions replacing them with?!

The academy has produced some really good players but there’s so much incompetence in terms of integrating and identifying them for the first team.

You post the same thing over and over again.
 
How is it PR when it's just a fact, the whole reason we aren't signing Osimhen is mainly down to his wage demands.

When the financial reports are published, lets see.
 
How is it PR when it's just a fact, the whole reason we aren't signing Osimhen is mainly down to his wage demands.

You know the math will be the same if you get rid of a 300k player and put in 3x100k players in his place (assuming they're all actually at 100k, which I doubt)?
 
The Sancho rumour is literally one line saying United believe Chelsea may come in for him. Dont get excited.
 
You know the math will be the same if you get rid of a 300k player and put in 3x100k players in his place (assuming they're all actually at 100k, which I doubt)?

Nothing will change except how the wages are reported by Journalists who will of course report as the club asks them to.

For example, Sterling's wage was reported all inclusive which was more than 300k, but his base wage will be much lower. This 300K+ will include his signing on fee, loyalty bonus, appearance fee , image rights. Now the players who are signed will get all that, except it is reported as base wage + bonus.

Im sure when the financial report is published, their wage bill will be one of the highest in the league.
 
Hate to disappoint you, but no, there isn't. There just isn't. Stop sulking and accept it...
Despite all the mad signings just in sheer numbers their net spend isn't that bad. Was about EUR 177m (£151m) last season and is about EUR 86m (£73.5m) so far. I am sure they are going to sell more players before the end of the window and are going to bring the net figure further down. Also, they have a head start on next season's books with potential £30m incoming if Ipswich stay up.

Will be interesting to see what's their wage bill is like as all these players must be on a decent whack. However, in terms of transfers fee it doesn't look outrageous based on the net spent figure.
 
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Nothing will change except how the wages are reported by Journalists who will of course report as the club asks them to.

For example, Sterling's wage was reported all inclusive which was more than 300k, but his base wage will be much lower. This 300K+ will include his signing on fee, loyalty bonus, appearance fee , image rights. Now the players who are signed will get all that, except it is reported as base wage + bonus.

Im sure when the financial report is published, their wage bill will be one of the highest in the league.

Their last set of accounts had them at a turnover of £512.5m and wages of £404m (78% wage to turnover). Since then, they've mostly sold academy players who were on low wages + Thaigo. They've brought in Neto, Felix and KDH on higher wages than the academy departures and they will have wages of Lukaku and Kepa in their books this year since they obviously have no takers.

I can't see this ending well.
 
Despite all the mad signings just in sheer numbers their net spend isn't that bad. Was about EUR 177m (£151m) last season and is about EUR 86m (£73.5m) so far. I am sure they are going to sell more players before the end of the window and are going to bring the net figure further down. Also, they have a head start on next season's books with potential £30m incoming if Ipswich stay up.

Will be interesting to see what's their wage bill is like as all these players must be on a decent whack. However, in terms of transfers fee it doesn't look outrageous based on the net spent figure.

They sold a lot of academy players and disbanded an army of core members of the first team over last 2 seasons that brought this figure down. The way I see it, they may do well this season and/or next, but very soon, a lot of these strategic mistakes will catch up on them. They will not have top academy players to sell since they sold all of them (young prospects will worry about joining the Chelsea project). They'll be left with a squad full of Bogardes and Lukakus on a 10 year contract. Young players will start to complain, leaking information to the press. Culture will start to disintegrate. It's already drama 24x7 there, and I can't wait to see what happens in 2 years.
 
They sold a lot of academy players and disbanded an army of core members of the first team over last 2 seasons that brought this figure down. The way I see it, they may do well this season and/or next, but very soon, a lot of these strategic mistakes will catch up on them. They will not have top academy players to sell since they sold all of them (young prospects will worry about joining the Chelsea project). They'll be left with a squad full of Bogardes and Lukakus on a 10 year contract. Young players will start to complain, leaking information to the press. Culture will start to disintegrate. It's already drama 24x7 there, and I can't wait to see what happens in 2 years.
I don't dispute that. Has all the makings of a messy situation that could spiral way out of control. However, if they are able to generate demand for some of highly rated players they seem to have signed then they could keep the wheel spinning. I am sure they have accounted a %age of these players becoming duds and staying on the books forever or going on endless loans that doesn't turn into any profit. One of the advantages of signing young players with potential is that they'd want to play rather than sit on the bench and pick up the cheque for doing nothing for the next 7-8 years. If a players finds himself benched then they are likely to agitate for move elsewhere.

Also, their academy has been used as a player farm since Roman's time. Spending on academy and youth players is not counted towards FFP but when you sell the player it is counted as pure profit. They have been smart in using that provision for years and I am sure have no plans of abandoning it now.
 
Their last set of accounts had them at a turnover of £512.5m and wages of £404m (78% wage to turnover). Since then, they've mostly sold academy players who were on low wages + Thaigo. They've brought in Neto, Felix and KDH on higher wages than the academy departures and they will have wages of Lukaku and Kepa in their books this year since they obviously have no takers.

I can't see this ending well.
Lukaku is almost certainly going to Napoli at this point. Between him, Ziyech, Silva, and Sarr that's about £45m per year in wages - Neto, Felix, and KDH aren't sniffing 50% of that figure.
 
I don't dispute that. Has all the makings of a messy situation that could spiral way out of control. However, if they are able to generate demand for some of highly rated players they seem to have signed then they could keep the wheel spinning. I am sure they have accounted a %age of these players becoming duds and staying on the books forever or going on endless loans that doesn't turn into any profit. One of the advantages of signing young players with potential is that they'd want to play rather than sit on the bench and pick up the cheque for doing nothing for the next 7-8 years. If a players finds himself benched then they are likely to agitate for move elsewhere.

Also, their academy has been used as a player farm since Roman's time. Spending on academy and youth players is not counted towards FFP but when you sell the player it is counted as pure profit. They have been smart in using that provision for years and I am sure have no plans of abandoning it now.

Who are these highly rated players they have in their squad right now that they can sell for a substantial profit? Palmer, Santos maybe. Enzo, Mudryk, Cucurella, Diasi, Badiashile, Chilwell, Fofana, Lavia, and Caicedo will be worth 50-60% of what they were purchased for and will hit them in amortization loss. Colwill is the only remaining highly rated academy product (James is on too high a salary to command a big fee). I see 7 GKs in their squad, 3 of them purchased for £20m+.

They're basically betting that even if 1-2 of these random players they've bought turns out to be Ronaldo or Messi, they can hit the jackpot but then, they would have to sell their top players to keep funding this. The odds of someone getting to that level is actually as good as the odds of Zubimendi joining Liverpool this year. Some will end up with a small profit that won't pay even their wages. The rest will be written off.
 
Are American sports like this where teams are hoarding players and transferring players for balancing books?
 
I read that Tosin been left out of the European tie?

Bit odd as this was your star signing at CB. I could understand you playing Fofana at the weekend as he's hardly kicked a ball in two years but would've thought European game would be good way to ease Tosin into the side.
 
I read that Tosin been left out of the European tie?

Bit odd as this was your star signing at CB. I could understand you playing Fofana at the weekend as he's hardly kicked a ball in two years but would've thought European game would be good way to ease Tosin into the side.
"Star signing" huh? He was a free transfer to replace Chalobah as a squad player.

Colwill and Fofana were always going to be the first choice CBs.
 
I read that Tosin been left out of the European tie?

Bit odd as this was your star signing at CB. I could understand you playing Fofana at the weekend as he's hardly kicked a ball in two years but would've thought European game would be good way to ease Tosin into the side.
 
"Star signing" huh? He was a free transfer to replace Chalobah as a squad player.

Colwill and Fofana were always going to be the first choice CBs.

So Fofana has effectively replaced Silva then if he can stay fit?
 
Are American sports like this where teams are hoarding players and transferring players for balancing books?
Sort of. It depends on the sport. American sports differ insofar as parity is a priority - so there are salary caps and also drafts where teams select the most promising young players to add to their organizations.

All American teams seek to balance their books creatively no matter the sport - the NBA is probably chief culprit given teams now all employ salary cap experts on their staff. In the NBA trades between teams have to have matching salary levels and the flexibility you have to build a roster is taken away as your salary hits higher and higher thresholds.

It's a very odd contrast because Europe generally is of course far more socialist than the US, yet European football is almost entirely a free-market enterprise. Meanwhile half the population of the US decries anything perceived as socialism yet all the sports are set up with revenue sharing from big markets to small ones, various restrictions on spending to promote parity, player unions, etc. Unrelated to your question but it's a bizarre contrast.
 
Because you club makes the same mistakes over and over again sadly

Most of those players i dont regret selling. Secondly if they played for Chelsea you would be saying they aren't good enough or average etc.
 
Who are these highly rated players they have in their squad right now that they can sell for a substantial profit? Palmer, Santos maybe. Enzo, Mudryk, Cucurella, Diasi, Badiashile, Chilwell, Fofana, Lavia, and Caicedo will be worth 50-60% of what they were purchased for and will hit them in amortization loss. Colwill is the only remaining highly rated academy product (James is on too high a salary to command a big fee). I see 7 GKs in their squad, 3 of them purchased for £20m+.

They're basically betting that even if 1-2 of these random players they've bought turns out to be Ronaldo or Messi, they can hit the jackpot but then, they would have to sell their top players to keep funding this. The odds of someone getting to that level is actually as good as the odds of Zubimendi joining Liverpool this year. Some will end up with a small profit that won't pay even their wages. The rest will be written off.
I don't think they'd be looking to sell any of them. This is pure guesswork but I think they have made signings for the first team and then have purchased players in volume at decent prices to sell them at a profit. If they find a pure gem then the player will be integrated into the team otherwise he'd be sold to other desperate PL clubs looking for signings.
 
Their last set of accounts had them at a turnover of £512.5m and wages of £404m (78% wage to turnover). Since then, they've mostly sold academy players who were on low wages + Thaigo. They've brought in Neto, Felix and KDH on higher wages than the academy departures and they will have wages of Lukaku and Kepa in their books this year since they obviously have no takers.

I can't see this ending well.

Lukaku is almost certainly going to Napoli at this point. Between him, Ziyech, Silva, and Sarr that's about £45m per year in wages - Neto, Felix, and KDH aren't sniffing 50% of that figure.

That's a significant saving, although worth noting that Chelsea have also spent an additional £615m on new players since the 30 June 2023 financial year end report referred to above (£404m wage bill), so even with the savings you mentioned above, the wage bill will presumably have increased this year vs last FY. You might yet be adding Osimhen to the wage bill, too, no? That will be another £15m/£16m a year
 
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That's a significant saving, although worth noting that Chelsea have also spent an additional £615m on new players since the 30 June 2023 financial year end report referred to above (£404m wage bill), so even with the savings you mentioned above, the wage bill will presumably have increased this year vs last FY. You might yet be adding Osimhen to the wage bill, too, no? That will be another £15m/£16m a year
Don't think there's any chance we get Osimhen on his current wages.

Also that 2023 report would still include players like Koulibaly, Aubameyang, Kante, Azpilicueta, Kovacic, Havertz, and Felix at his previously much-higher wages. I'd be very surprised if our wage bill was higher for last year compared to 22/23.
 
You might yet be adding Osimhen to the wage bill, too, no? That will be another £15m/£16m a year

Osimhen will be on a £100k/week contract, same level as rest of the players they've bought. He loves Chelsea and can easily be convinced to take a drastic wage cut by Boehly or Egbahli or whoever runs the show.
 
Osimhen will be on a £100k/week contract, same level as rest of the players they've bought. He loves Chelsea and can easily be convinced to take a drastic wage cut by Boehly or Egbahli or whoever runs the show.
I am pretty sure Felix is paying Chelsea 100k pw for the honor of being part of their squad.
 
Maatsen
Guehi
Tomori
Ake
Liveramento

Hudson-Odoi
Gilmour
Gallagher
Olise
Mount
Rice

Solanke
Abraham
Nketiah

All from the academy and all no longer at the club.

Is the above much worse than they’ve spent billions replacing them with?!

The academy has produced some really good players but there’s so much incompetence in terms of integrating and identifying them for the first team.
The only area you could make that argument with is the defense.

A Rice/Mount/Gallagher midfield is probably the worst midfield (amoung good players) I could think off, offers far too much of the same strengths and weaknesses while Palmer and Nkunku alone clear that front three.
 
Who are these highly rated players they have in their squad right now that they can sell for a substantial profit? Palmer, Santos maybe. Enzo, Mudryk, Cucurella, Diasi, Badiashile, Chilwell, Fofana, Lavia, and Caicedo will be worth 50-60% of what they were purchased for and will hit them in amortization loss. Colwill is the only remaining highly rated academy product (James is on too high a salary to command a big fee). I see 7 GKs in their squad, 3 of them purchased for £20m+.

They're basically betting that even if 1-2 of these random players they've bought turns out to be Ronaldo or Messi, they can hit the jackpot but then, they would have to sell their top players to keep funding this. The odds of someone getting to that level is actually as good as the odds of Zubimendi joining Liverpool this year. Some will end up with a small profit that won't pay even their wages. The rest will be written off.
I really want Chelsea’s strategy to fail. They essentially have this side business of Player Trading, underpinned by flogging from their excellent academy. Maybe its a PSR side effect but it’s miserable, and the academy was built on the Abramovich money which so distorted football and will forever sour Chelsea in my eyes.

As for the scattergun player accumulation, have any of the Clearlake acquisitions increased their value (Palmer, Malo Gusto possibly)? Even at that, if you don’t have on field success bringing CL revenue, the player trading model means you have to sell these best players to balance the books.

Would find it very difficult to be a Chelsea fan. What is there to support in the club’s current incarnation?
 
Don't think there's any chance we get Osimhen on his current wages.

Also that 2023 report would still include players like Koulibaly, Aubameyang, Kante, Azpilicueta, Kovacic, Havertz, and Felix at his previously much-higher wages. I'd be very surprised if our wage bill was higher for last year compared to 22/23.

In addition to the ones you mentioned Kepa, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek were still in the 22/23 salary bill as well and all of them on significant wages. Kepa of course is still on the books but for the 23/24 season his wages were paid by Real Madrid.

The 23/24 financial year was the first one where the squad consisted 95% of Clearlake era contracts so it'll be interesting to see the numbers when the actual accounts get published. I definitely don't take all the PR briefings re. the club's wages at face value and I do think the public reports are often quite underestimated but despite that I'm 100% sure the salaries will have gone down by quite a bit.