Chelsea Academy: The money and pressure in the game has turned the Academy into a money making machine.
It's been a subject for debate for good knows how many seasons but it's becoming clear that Chelsea's Academy players are bec...
https://www.chelseadaft.org/2017/07/chelsea-academy-money-and-pressure-in.html
It's been a subject for debate for good knows how many seasons but it's becoming clear that Chelsea's Academy players are becoming more valuable for differing reasons.
The sale of Nathan Ake has for me re-iterated just how much the game has changed in this country. As more and more money is ploughed into our game, expectations increase and with that comes pressure to succeed in the Premier League. For clubs such as Chelsea who are expected to challenge for every domestic and European honour in the game season in, season out, they simply cannot afford to fall behind their challengers and continue to invest big money in new players who come in and replace those we currently have or ones previously brought in to then be sold.
Just look at the staggering amount of money that Chelsea have made from player sales since 2014 to the current day - A whopping £400 million!. It's fair to say that the majority of those players were squad members or players who had fallen out of favour with the current Manager at the time.
The list of those players is as follows:
Kevin De Bruyne - £16.5m - Wolfsburg
Juan Mata - £37.1m - Man United
George Saville - £1m - Wolves
Romelu Lukaku - £28m - Everton
Patrick Van Aanholt - £1.5m - Sunderland
Demba Ba - £4.7m - Besiktas
David Luiz - £50m - PSG
Ryan Bertrand - £10m - Southampton
Andre Schurrle - £22m - Wolfsburg
Oriol Romeu - £5m - Southampton
Felipe Luis - £11.1m - Atletico Madrid
Josh McEachran - £750,000 - Brentford
Petr Cech - £10m - Arsenal
Gael Kakuta - £2.5m - Seville
Thorgan Hazard - £5.85m - Borussia Moenchengladbach
Ramires - £25m - Jiangsu Suning
Marko Marin - £3m - Olympiakos
Papy Djilododji - £8m - Sunderland
Mohamed Salah - £14.5m - Roma
Stipe Perica - £3.4m - Udinese
John Obi Mikel - £9.3m - Tianjin Teda
Patrick Bamford - £6m - Middlesborough
Oscar - £60m - Shanghai SIPG
Bertrand Traore - £8.8m - Lyon
Christian Atsu - £6.2m - Newcastle
Juan Cuadrado - £17.3m - Juventus
Dominic Solanke - £3m (tribunal to confirm) - Liverpool
Asmir Begovic - £10m - Bournemouth
Nathan Ake - £20m - Bournemouth
The players from our Academy are highlighted in bold. The figure of sales of just those players is £69 Million (which could rise if an independent tribunal deems that Liverpool have to pay Chelsea more than the £3m quoted), it also does not take into account Izzy Brown's impending move to Huddersfield for a possible £8m either!
People moan and groan about our loan system with Chelsea's insistence that our young players get a feel for competitive football in and around the loan leagues. Those that have impressed in the realms of League One and the Championship are also then given the chance to prove what they can do in the Premier League.
However, to this day it's only really been Nathan Ake who came through our Academy that had made an impact playing regular first team football on loan in the Premier League with others such as Patrick Bamford being unable to prove himself at that level.
That's the problem here. These players are not given enough chances at their parent clubs with Chelsea being a prime example. That's because of the demands of the Premier League, the massive and quite simply ridiculous monies on offer for avoiding relegation let alone to qualify in the top four. Each Premier League manager up and down the county knows exactly what is required from their board of directors, owners and most importantly the fans. They cannot afford to play a younger player week in, week out because if it doesn't work out and they lose games it could prove to be detrimental to their goals for the season which could then have a knock on effect.
It's such a frustrating situation at Chelsea because just look at how good our youth teams are. We have some real proven quality within our youth ranks but they have to be nurtured away from the club plying their trade elsewhere! OK, Chelsea has a dedicated team of people that work with each of our loan players throughout the season but that's not the point.
If you look at the flip side of things and see the potential player values of our Academy players such as Ryan Bertrand and Nathan Ake then you will see that the whole situation has changed. Just think that all those Academy player sales since 2014 will have more or less paid for the signatures of Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger will Willy Caballero thrown in! It's crazy!
Unless the rule makers in the Premier League step in and implement salary caps, limit the number of foreign players in squad/subsequent match day eleven and ensure that at least one player from the Academy is implemented into a squad every year playing a minimum of ten games, things will never change!
As I said, the money in the game now and the pressures of expectation has changed our game forever. Academy players are now seen as potential moneymakers rather than future first team players with only the exceptional ones given a possible chance.
Lies, damn lies and statistics.......
ReplyDelete!) Yes it looks good on the face of it.
2) Yes, it can be interpreted exactly as you have done.
3) It doesn't look quite as good if you take into account our purchase cost.
4) Take into account players current worth and you're close to a £400m loss.
Our "system" has it's benefits but overall it's far from great. Some youngsters don't need too long to improve/settle if given an opportunity; look at what's happening at Spurs.
Much as I agree with your ;stats; Norman,we both I think share the same view,ie the game we grew/up with has changed beyond our wildest/dreams,all the big boys nowdays have their own 24/7 PR crew on permanent/standby,to put out whatever ;;Facts;; they want us fans to ;believe; the media as a whole work the same way,,but underlying it all is the 'vast amount'of money that,s around that average/youth/players demand and expect.while we may have the best/around and clearly we do,the step/up to the 1st/team and what/where CFC Hierarchy expect the team to be,is the reason hardly any ;youth team players; make the breakthrough,hence we buy a ready/made component that fit the bill and get results.you mention Spurs,[[ and I like their squad and set/up]] but what have the won recently,there in lies the Problem,happy days a.
ReplyDeleteHappy days indeed. Money has certainly changed the game beyond all recognition, in some ways for the better, but in some ways not.
DeletePerhaps its the romantic in me (or just wishful thinking) but I don't think all is lost in terms of youth being given a chance. Spurs may not have won anything but for the last couple of seasons they've been better than all bar one or two clubs and they seem to be well set to continue in that vein.