This time it's a 19 year old Brazilian "wonder kid", whose name escapes me, and you guessed it, he goes straight out on loan. How many more of these "wonder kids" are prancing around in South America? The Argie wonder kid, Messi was playing for Barca at 18, and how old was the other Brazil "wonder kid" Neymar? Who would you sign for if you were young and talented? Chelsea??
I don't even want to comment on it to be honest CP. Am fed up to the back teeth of this ****. These days I just ignore the youth team, and anyone we sign who is under 22 and cost less than £20m. Because if they dont meet either of those criteria, the chances of me seeing them start for the Chelsea first XI in a league game is slim to none.
It's a way of getting round FFP. We buy these players young, improve them and their reputation and then sell them on for profit.
I'd prefer to just expand our stadium or get a stadium sponsor. (Who gives a ****, I will still always call it Stamford Bridge no matter what, so it makes no odds to me).
I don't think it will make a difference to the new stadium. We're not investing millions in doing it and we've had profit on more of less every player we've sold using this method. Only thing that concerns me about doing this is the fact we're not producing our own academy players as these players take up most of the slots.
Thats what I am saying. We are never going to produce anyone of note if we carry on in this method. I get why they are doing this, I get the reasoning behind it (to stay competitive now there is FFP), but surely there are other ways to bring in extra income, I cannot believe the stadium thing has dragged on this long, I would rather they just say "**** it" and get a stadium sponsor. Stamford Bridge will always be Stamford Bridge, but surely producing young players for the team is the priority and the reason we pay money to support the team in the first place, to watch football.
So much negativity. If he proves his worth he will get a chance - if he has a price worth selling for we will sell. I wish him all the best. Likelihood is he wont get a work permit so will be loaned in Europe.
Not sure all the loanee's are necessarily hampering the youth team. We've won various comps recently at youth level despite the fact we also have dozens of players out on loan. The fact we've signed the 'next whoever' means nothing though. 9/10 of these players will probably never player for us and are being used for FFP reasons. I know this is a bug bare of yours Bo but we need some way to compete with the European giants with much bigger stadiums than us and this is obviously a method the club have identified. It's not particularly graceful and perhaps even morally a slight grey area but it is what it is. It'll certainly be met with a lot less opposition from the fans then a stadium move or re-name that's for sure.
I get it, I know why they are doing it. The youth team winning cups is pointless when they just leave at 21 and go sign for someone else. When a single one of them nails down a place in our first XI, then we can call it a success. I wouldnt want us to move, but a stadium rename wouldnt bother me in the slightest, like I said, it will always be the Bridge no matter what sponsor name they throw in front of it. To oppose that on any great scale would be silly if we get some major wedge for it. I would certainly take that over dicking up the career of a whole generation of footballers and potentially hampering our chances of ever producing another decent player.
Whilst it's mainly for FFP, I'm sure the club ultimately do want to see some of these youngsters make it but it's tough for managers who need that instant success. In terms of the top clubs, it's only really United and Arsenal who have consistently brought young players through and that must be because Fergie and Wenger have (had) that job security that our managers never have. Even then Arsenal's success is a shadow of ours in that 10 year period plus they've been paying off a stadium. And going forward, I can't see many youngsters at United making it now they are spunking cash like no tomorrow. There is certainly a weird situation where because we are an established top team we can obviously attract these good young players but then they don't get the chances they would if we were a mid-table or below team.
I'm sure you're right Diego, but like Bodanki, my beef is not that we buy and sell all these kids, as FFP makes something like this a necessity. It's that NO kids ever get into our team. We have people like Bamford scoring for fun, we have the leading goalscorer in the under 19 winning team, yet we play Drogba. It just frustrates the hell out of me. Classic catch 22, they can't play because they have no experience, because they don't play.
Still comes down to job security and expectations CP. Lets say Jose gave Bamford 60mins against us on Saturday and leaves Drogba on the bench, 30mins to go you are 2-0 down, Drogba comes on and pulls one back. In the remaining 20mins Drogba hits the post and has two great efforts saved you lose 2-1. How many supporters and pundits would scream that Drogba should have started before some kid. I actually think the method of raising money is quite good and could be beneficial to both partys if you went for a lower standard of youth. If you bought a kid with some talent from a lower league team you could raise his standard, give him the kudos of being on Chelsea books and still sell him for a tidy profit raising money for you and profile for the kid. To buy genuin talent, the next whoever, and then park his career is maybe raising money but also killing a possible star.
Now Diego, you lost me with your example, there's no way we'll be 2-0 down on Saturday !! I do see your point and agree with you. It will take a Regulation change from the FA to make teams start a few youngsters each season. Looking forward to Saturday, hope we see a cracking game.
Some reports suggesting he'll be in our squad for next season. Be interesting to see whether that is the case. Happened with Oscar but he was a little more established.
