A New Transfer Policy?

[Superblue 6,370]

There have been reports in the papers recently, intensifying today, that Chelsea are looking to adopt a shift in their transfer policy by securing some of the best youngsters from around the world, with a focus on Spain.

Now firstly I would always much prefer the club to sign a younger player who can both be given time and patience to adapt to the club, but also have a resale value in the future. This as opposed to previous seasons where the club have signed players already at their peak (or over?) at 28+ who carry high transfer fees and wages due to past performances and hold no future resale value.

I believe the club over the last year or so have been trying to shift to younger players and I'm happy with signings such as Mata, Ramires and David Luiz. However I have always said the club should take their transfer policy one step further and the financial fair play rules seem to be doing just that...

Why is the club paying Benfica £18m for Ramires when only a season before Benfica brought him for £6m? We have seemed lazy in the past and allowed other European teams to take a punt on players or nurture talent, before paying top dollar for them. Honestly what difference would it have made for Ramires to come straight to England? It's hardly like he is going to become accustomed to English football by playing in Portugal first. The club needs to be much more proactive in this area.

Javier Hernandez was arguably the buy of last summer - he was good, and even better that United only paid £7m for him. In previous years, Chelsea would have looked at a player like that, let him move to Valencia or Porto for a season or two and then buy him for £20m.

I take much more satisfaction from the fact that Chelsea only paid £5m for Romeu and he looks a class act than paying £18m for Ramires despite how well he has been playing. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a rebuilding process that the club is in need of...

[Krypt 241]

Its Defiantly a good idea but im just worried about our previous attempts at brining players through , it hasn't really been successful with the FFP rules coming in we have to change our policy no more are the times of splashing 20 million on a 8 million rated player.

Hopefully it will have a positive effect on our club.

[Superblue 6,370]

I think it's never worked in the past because the club has only ever looked at the short term picture, and in doing so the short term fix has always been to buy or use already established players.

If the club is committed to backing AVB to rebuild this club then the tactics he wants to use requires younger, dynamic players, who can find it more easier to adapt to change.

The financial fair play rules will force us to start planning more long term and shift our policies on both recruiting younger players and bringing them through the first team.

[Madmax 9,219]

The real reason younger players are preferred with UFFP around the corner is that they require lesser wages than a been there-done that superstar. With the ruling that player wages cannot exceed 70% of our income under UFFP, and our revenue sources limited in comparison to other big clubs, looking towards young all-to-prove talent is a natural consequence.

The tranfer prices don't come into it at all, they are amortized over the length of the contract anyway.

[Superblue 6,370]

I agree wages is the biggest factor in regards to Financial Fair Play, and younger players are naturally going to come at far lower wages, but it's the footballing side which concerns me more.

I want to see how AVB's tactics are going to develop, because I think the ideas are there and the approach looks more positive from an attacking point of view. However it requires new fresh players to do this, not the same players which have been here for 5 years or more playing 4-3-3 religiously!

People always go on about the need for experience alongside youth, but we have a number of players in the 25-30 range at the club who can provide that experience to the younger players - Cech, Ivanovic, Essien, Meireles, Torres. Why when we think of experience do we naturally need to immediately point to the old guard who now must be seriously questioned for their places in the team?!

[steve5221 91]

These players are out of contract at the end of this season or next, surely we should be busting a gut to get rid or resign them on lesser terms. We will be saving £16 mill a year if we can get rid.

Drogba

Kalou

Malouda

Anelka

Ferreria

[Superblue 6,370]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Kalou, Anelka, Drogba, Bosingwa and Hilario all have contracts that expire at the end of the season, and Ferreira, Malouda, Alex, Lampard and Cole all have contracts that expire in summer 2013.

I believe all 10 of these players have question marks on them (remember Lampard will be 35 and Cole 32 by the end of their contracts), and I just wonder whether the club do cut them all loose over the next couple of seasons. Lampard may be offered a new deal and retire at the club, but it would have to be on drastically reduced terms to his current £150k pw and he would have to accept a lesser role within the first team - something I'm not sure he would be happy with.

Alex and Malouda will likely be sold on in the summer with a year left on their deals and if Cole continues his poor form I wouldn't be surprised if he moved in the summer to finish his career abroad which he has regularly admitted to considering.

[Madmax 9,219]

A big mistake was to renew long term the already staggering contracts of Lampard and Terry back when Inter and City showed interest. Essentially we now have two players who shouldn't be playing every game of every week, yet who're getting upwards of 150k each. That's close to £30 million a year!

[manpe 10,861]

A big mistake was to renew long term the already staggering contracts of Lampard and Terry back when Inter and City showed interest. Essentially we now have two players who shouldn't be playing every game of every week, yet who're getting upwards of 150k each. That's close to £30 million a year!

Lamps and JT must retire with us

[Madmax 9,219]

Lamps and JT must retire with us

Not on those wage packets.

[Krypt 241]

Lamps and JT must retire with us

im all for loyalty but the only reason we should keep them is if they agree to lower terms , but if lamps is 35 at the end of his contract he will be no use to us by then.

if we get rid of Drogba Kalou Hilario and Paluo at the end of the season that will make room in the budget for some new players.

[Superblue 6,370]

A big mistake was to renew long term the already staggering contracts of Lampard and Terry back when Inter and City showed interest. Essentially we now have two players who shouldn't be playing every game of every week, yet who're getting upwards of 150k each. That's close to £30 million a year!

Fully agree. It can be argued that Lampard has still given good value for money and is still scoring consistently, but I think for him it's more the fact that a change of tactics and style of play may come at a detriment to his game, but will be beneficial to the team as a whole. If Lampard was to accept yearly extensions thereafter 2013 on, say £50k pw, á la Giggs and Scholes, I could see him still having a future in a reduced capacity for another couple of seasons yet, but I'm not sure if he would accept this with greater riches available in America and the Arab countries.

The Terry contract was a monumental f*** up. He basically milked City's interest and completely held the club to ransom with the firm knowledge that fans would revolt if he was sold. In hindsight we should have taken the £30m on the table from City (or asked them to throw Micah Richards or Kompany into the deal) and let him leave. We could have replaced him with a younger defender and already had Carvalho, Alex and Ivanovic at the club. The move would have also ripped City apart as the Bridge affair would have come out with Terry and Bridge both playing for City.

I may be wrong but I also believe Terry has a clause in his contract that matches him up to the highest earner at the club whilst he is here, so I believe he is on £170k pw in line with Torres. Again, this is another huge mistake because if a real top player became available on the market as the clubs 'marquee' player on £200k pw, we may have to put a 32/33 year old centre back on the same wage?!!

[manpe 10,861]

Not on those wage packets.

When their current contracts run out, they should either accept a substantial pay cut according to their role (you don't pay that much to a rotation player) and extend their contracts on year-to-year basis and/or retire... but ideally they should retire with us, I see no other way.

It honestly sickens me to read that some of our so called fans would prefer Terry to be playing in Mancherfucking Shitty at the moment... or Lampard in one of the most unsympathetic teams- Inter. Not to mention that when Inter were interested in Lamps, he had one of his best seasons to date after that. The cries of "Judas", gloryhunting and unloyalty would've been unbearable to hear if Terry did indeed go to City... or Lampard being Mourinho's dick sucking bitch. You would all be crying that there is no more loyalty in football. Everybody is smart in hindsight. It's all about the muny, as Nicki Minaj would say.

[Krypt 241]

When their current contracts run out, they should either accept a substantial pay cut according to their role (you don't pay that much to a rotation player) and extend their contracts on year-to-year basis and/or retire... but ideally they should retire with us, I see no other way.

It honestly sickens me to read that some of our so called fans would prefer Terry to be playing in Mancherfucking Shitty at the moment... or Lampard in one of the most unsympathetic teams- Inter. Not to mention that when Inter were interested in Lamps, he had one of his best seasons to date after that. The cries of "Judas" and unloyalty would've been unbearable to hear if Terry did indeed go to City... or Lampard being Mourinho's dick sucking bitch. You would all be crying that there is no more loyalty in football. Everybody is smart in hindsight. It's all about the muny, as Nicki Minaj would say.

I don't think the majority of fans would ever like to see JT go to Shitty or Lamps to Inter. I Think Lamps will retire with us , though i cant see JT staying around to be a bit part player with a lower wage as much as i would love him to retire with us i just dont think he would accept that sort of role.

[Superblue 6,370]

I'm not saying I would like seeing Terry play for City, but I'm just saying in hindsight we should have taken the £30m on offer and brought a young up and coming centre back on a fraction of Terry's 5 year wage deal which half way through we're now all questioning how we ended up being lumbered with it.

[termninja 5,290]

It's a good step, but it is wrong if the club is looking at the players u20 years for the next 2 transfer periods. The age gap between our players is too big and that leaves us with a group not ready for the regular first team action (Lukaku, Kakuta, McEachran, Bertrand, Oriol) and a group not able to produce performances they should due to their age and lack of hunger (Drogba, Anelka, Malouda...). What I want from Chelsea before the Fair Play rules is to get more players like Mata and Luiz. Players between 20-26 years of age who can give more then a few seasons to the club and who can step up right away. Are they expensive? Aye, but we are rich and Fair Plays rules are not yet in action.

We need players like Lampard, Drogba and Essien who will produce quality performance for the club over the years instead of Shevchenko, Torres, Zhirkov and similar who only eat wages and have a couple of good matches.

As for the 2nd point mentioned by Superblue I agree. Our scouting network needs work, though we've seen a few cheap buys now like Romeu, Piazon, Masek and Feruz along with the interest of players like De Bruyne and that 15y English midfielder I can't remember right now. You can definitely see the change of policy and the club is working on it and it's a good thing, but it's a work in progress.

Honestly, if I really hate something is when we pay loads of money for an 28-29 year old player who does well a season or two (or perhaps not even 1 season) and then we sell him for something cheap while Jose's untouchables continue playing week and week out...

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I wouldn't exactly call this new. We've tried signing youngsters(Sidwell, Di Santo, Glen Johnson, Kakuta, Sinclair...etc) before, it just was never very effective for us. I think the reason is first youngsters are always like a 1 to 10 chance, second is that at a club of the size of Chelsea a new signing is always expected to have instant impact on the team.

[Krypt 241]

I wouldn't exactly call this new. We've tried signing youngsters(Sidwell, Di Santo, Glen Johnson, Kakuta, Sinclair...etc) before, it just was never very effective for us. I think the reason is first youngsters are always like a 1 to 10 chance, second is that at a club of the size of Chelsea a new signing is always expected to have instant impact on the team.

Which will have to change if we want our youngsters to come through and play in our first team in the future. Kakuta for one , there was alot of hype about him but the hype hasnt paid off he looked fantastic in the under 19 championship.