Lucas Piazón

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I can't believe the board still have faith in this kind of thing.

We all know the future of Piazon: he will go on loan again, again, and the he will be sold before starting more than 5 official matches for Chelsea...Curtois was the only success the club have in that aspect.

Chelsea is club like Real, at the end of the day, just buying players that made it in different clubs, even Curtois returned after he became successful playing for another club.

I think it's pretty obvious our strategy is mainly to aid player development/exposure through loans and sell them for a profit while hoping one or two may break through at Chelsea, instead of trying to promote youth first and then sell the ones not good enough. From a purely business perspective, I don't mind this strategy at all. Just got to curb the emotional attachment to younger players that are out on loan or in the reserves because then you'll continue to be disappointed.

[rantdeville 195]

I think it's pretty obvious our strategy is mainly to aid player development/exposure through loans and sell them for a profit while hoping one or two may break through at Chelsea, instead of trying to promote youth first and then sell the ones not good enough. From a purely business perspective, I don't mind this strategy at all. Just got to curb the emotional attachment to younger players that are out on loan or in the reserves because then you'll continue to be disappointed.

Disenchantment aside, I've begun to agree with you.

We're gonna pioneer a new reality show that's gonna air on television called "Flip This Footballer!"

The plot will be based around the heavy turnover in the Chelsea youth ranks and the evolution of the "glass-ceiling" (which has developed more organically out of necessity, rather than intention) and the aptly-named Football Factory that is being run, whereby the club has chosen to implement a revolving-door system of purchasing fringe youth players, underlining quality moreso than quality in their search for the purposes of making a large number of small profits instead of hoping and praying for the one special talent to break through.

...

Of course, I'm kidding. I think we, as fans, would do well to (like Bir_CFC said) detach ourselves emotionally and remain objective with these youth players, for our own well-being, of course. From a business perspective it does seem relatively low-risk and appears to be scalable, and for all intents and purposes may be running perfectly in their eyes. After all, at the most fundamental level and ignoring costs, selling 10 players at £5m pounds profit and winning a couple (FA Youth Cups in the process) does look good.

And who knows, after 10 years or so, the allure of this youth machine they're running does increase considerably when they're chasing the signature of the next 15 year old messi and they can bring a handful of accolades to the table and say, "this is what we do..."

Not dissimilar from the manner in which we attained Eden Hazard (much older at the time, of course), but he did say that he was joining the reining champions of europe, which I'm not too confident we could have done sans the trophy with the big ears.

[Henrique 9,133]

I think it's pretty obvious our strategy is mainly to aid player development/exposure through loans and sell them for a profit while hoping one or two may break through at Chelsea, instead of trying to promote youth first and then sell the ones not good enough. From a purely business perspective, I don't mind this strategy at all. Just got to curb the emotional attachment to younger players that are out on loan or in the reserves because then you'll continue to be disappointed.

To be honest thats far from obvious. Actually for me its more trying to repare the damage than a strategy. KDB was sold for good money, but he was never a player coming from the academy.

Actually the amount of money the club is getting for selling those young players is very, very small compared with the amount of money invested in the academy.

Theres is no big club in the world that has an academy to produce players only with the perspective of selling them, while hoping that one or two will break through...and to be honest in last 10 years, not a single player coming from the academy made any kind of impact in the first team.

So, even from a "purely business perspective" the Abramovich's academy is far from a success.

[rantdeville 195]

To be honest thats far from obvious. Actually for me its more trying to repare the damage than a strategy. KDB was sold for good money, but he was never a player coming from the academy.

Actually the amount of money the club is getting for selling those young players is very, very small compared with the amount of money invested in the academy.

Theres is no big club in the world that has an academy to produce players only with the perspective of selling them, while hoping that one or two, ffo will break through...and to be honest in last 10 years, not a single player coming from the academy made any kind of impact in the first team.

So, even from a "purely business perspective" the Abramovich's academy is far from a success.

You do raise a good point that was overlooked, the actual cost of running an academy.

I wonder if anyone has actual numbers that an operation like that takes to run? It def cannot be neglected or overlooked.

If it is, in fact, a lower cost operation than what we're thinking, maybe it could be recouped with the sales of younger players. Those small gains from players like Stoch, Cork, Bruma, Torë, etc might have actually offset costs to a degree.

What's the minimum professional contract value for the youth players? Does it factor into FFP?

[The only place to be 11,313]

You do raise a good point that was overlooked, the actual cost of running an academy.

I wonder if anyone has actual numbers that an operation like that takes to run? It def cannot be neglected or overlooked.

It's roughly about £4-5 million....ish.

Academies aren't really designed as money-making exercises in the strictest sense. They're essentially a cost you write-off because they're seen as a necessary part of a football club. Maybe they're somewhat anachronistic, but if you can produce a top-level player then you're saving yourself £20-30 million as well as having that priceless connection with someone who has come through the club.

[Muzchap 8,966]

It's roughly about £4-5 million....ish.

Academies aren't really designed as money-making exercises in the strictest sense. They're essentially a cost you write-off because they're seen as a necessary part of a football club. Maybe they're somewhat anachronistic, but if you can produce a top-level player then you're saving yourself £20-30 million as well as having that priceless connection with someone who has come through the club.

Yup and Academies are exempt from FFP calculations it makes sense to invest as any player sold is pure profit from an FFP perspective (I know it's not really - but that's how it will work on FFP balance sheet)

[nyikolajevics 2,578]

http://www.fr-online.de/eintracht-frankfurt/eintracht-frankfurt-trainingslager-piaz-n-an-der-angel,1473446,27921522,view,asFirstTeaser.html

Piazon will go on loan to Frankfurt, they will announce it soon according to this article. They want Bakkali too.

This lad has already played in the Premier League, the Brasilian Serie A, the Eredivisie and in the La Liga at the age of 20 and now Bundesliga? Not bad.

[rantdeville 195]

To be honest thats far from obvious. Actually for me its more trying to repare the damage than a strategy. KDB was sold for good money, but he was never a player coming from the academy.

Actually the amount of money the club is getting for selling those young players is very, very small compared with the amount of money invested in the academy.

Theres is no big club in the world that has an academy to produce players only with the perspective of selling them, while hoping that one or two will break through...and to be honest in last 10 years, not a single player coming from the academy made any kind of impact in the first team.

So, even from a "purely business perspective" the Abramovich's academy is far from a success.

"Theres is no big club in the world that has an academy to produce players only with the perspective of selling them [sic]"

Maybe we are amidst a changing of the guard? Seeing as the responses above are showing figures far below my projected thoughts and supplemented with the notion that academy costs do not factor into FFP but profits do, then it might just be feasible that generating a stream of revenue from sale of youth might take priority while actually bleeding them into top-tier, first team players is more of a bonus, rather than requisite condition to see his business model succeed.

£4-£5m/year seems like a number that can be recouped with the sale of just a few players. Speaking mostly about under 21s moreso than the odd case like bertrand who has been costing wages every year while not necessarily the picture of success in terms of appearances.

[Jase 43,479]

[Madmax 9,219]

Eintracht Frankfurt, Koln .. can't we find PL clubs? Although as long as they get to play regularly, it's alright, I suppose.

[Jase 43,479]

A bit funny that Eintracht Frankfurt is currently managed by Marin's former manager at Bremen - Thomas Schaaf.

[zyzz 711]

A bit funny that Eintracht Frankfurt is currently managed by Marin's former manager at Bremen - Thomas Schaaf.

Schaaf was also the one that gave KDB a major role in his Bremen team 2 years ago so hopefully he does the same with Piazon

[Jase 43,479]

Schaaf was also the one that gave KDB a major role in his Bremen team 2 years ago so hopefully he does the same with Piazon

Knew I had forgotten someone!

[killer1257 3,282]

So that basically means that I have to start watching Frankfurt games.I live near Frankfurt,so now I have a reason to watch them.I used to watch them,but they are so weak xD.

Let´s see how Piazon develops,but I do not think that he will make it in Chelsea

[Joker10 946]

I personally trust German clubs and their respective managers to develop young players. I have no faith in English clubs and their dinosaur managers. Bungesliga has a much better environment to develop, and EPL relies too much on physical abilities in contrast to technical abilities. A league that values physical abilities will always have a hard time developing young players, since most kids don't develop physically until much later.

It is good the club realizes this, smart choice by the club to loan Hazard, Kalas, and now Piazon to Bundesliga.

On the other hand Lukaku and Zouma are perfect for a English loan.

Schaaf was also the one that gave KDB a major role in his Bremen team 2 years ago so hopefully he does the same with Piazon

Also managed Diego and Ozil, so he knows how to use Am's.

Bring back memories those Ozil and Hunt days were fun to watch.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Good loan for a player who will never make it at this club. Best we can hope for is bumping up his value closer to £10 million although recouping the transfer cost would be an acceptable return at this point.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Good loan for a player who will never make it at this club. Best we can hope for is bumping up his value closer to £10 million although recouping the transfer cost would be an acceptable return at this point.

It's sad but I do agree. Chelsea's system of loaning is as flawed (if not more) as it's academy.. So many players are being buried by these useless loan spells

[Tomo 21,733]

It's sad but I do agree. Chelsea's system of loaning is as flawed (if not more) as it's academy.. So many players are being buried by these useless loan spells

This is what helps us compete with the Bayerns and Madrids financially in the FFP era. I mean this year alone KDB transfer helped pay for Matic while in Courtois by all intents and purposes we are signing a £25m plus keeper for free (if he was owned by Leti, god knows what he would have cost).

That alone makes this loan system worthwhile, ones not quite good enough effectively pay to improve our team (like I said KDB being the main example dus far) and when some one does make the grade like Thiabut we effectively get a player who would have cost a bomb otherwise for free.

If say Liverpool adopted this system and got players like Courtois from it, there would be a thread in football banter with us all green with envy.