Chelsea Transfers

[Vesper 30,083]

PFA pushing to stop ‘bomb squads’ as strategy for forcing player exits

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5726144/2024/08/27/pfa-bomb-squad-premier-league/

The Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) is pushing for clubs to stop using ‘bomb squads’ as a way to force unwanted players to leave.

It has become common for players to find themselves training away from the first-team squad if they are deemed surplus to requirements before the transfer window closes.

That has happened at Chelsea this summer, with Raheem Sterling, Trevor Chalobah, and Ben Chilwell all being instructed to train separately from Enzo Maresca’s first-team group.

The PFA, the players’ union in England, is aware of what is happening at Chelsea but does not comment on their involvement in individual club cases.

In all cases where the PFA has been alerted to what is happening at a club, the first thing they do is to contact the member directly to get their view of the situation and to see how they can support the player.

They declined to comment when asked by The Athletic if they are in contact with Sterling, Chilwell, or Chalobah.

“We see this tactic used now because there is this opportunity to move players on before the deadline,” James King, general counsel of the PFA, previously told The Athletic when asked about ‘bomb squads’ in 2022.

“Managers change and they make an assessment of their squad, deciding that some players are not in their plans. But a player still has an employment contract and that is for a fixed term. The player is an employee and they have rights and protections like anyone else.

“This isn’t keeping a player’s skills up to the level they should be. These are professional footballers and the employer is obliged to train them at the highest possible level.

“We’ve got to be pragmatic because we understand how the industry works but you’ve got to also understand it from a player’s perspective. A lot of the time they’ve not done anything wrong. It’s just that they’re not fancied.”

In 2022, FIFA clarified its regulations on the issue and Article 14 (2) found that making a player train on their own could lead to a club engaging in “abusive conduct”.

The PFA lobbied for this guidance to be communicated to clubs because it is rooted in employment law.

FIFA’s position on ‘bomb squads’ also gives the players’ union something to reference when they make formal representations to clubs to remind them of their responsibilities.

High-profile sports lawyers are anticipating the possibility of future instruction, in case players want to claim it breaches employment law and take their clubs to court.

GO DEEPER

'Players have rights like anybody else' - how 'bomb squads' could be breaking the law

[ZAPHOD2319 4,799]

Looking like we are going to see how good VO can be.

 

[Vesper 30,083]

6 hours ago, Thor said:

He is such a meh player. Quite literally had one good season and it was filled with penalties. He is 28, had plenty of controversy around him, and just doesn't stand out at doing anything amazing. 

This is like a worse version of Demba Ba situation. 

[YorkshireBlue 3,264]

9 minutes ago, ZAPHOD2319 said:

Looking like we are going to see how good VO can be.

 

Until tomorrow when we get a contradiction tweet 😂

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

On the plus side, if we sign Osimhen, kaveh and sky sit there with egg on their face after running the Chelsea move for Toney stuff for hours. I see they have discreetly pushed it down their homepage 

while I am not a fan of signing Osimhen bc of afcon, injury, general fitness, skill level etc the dealbreaker for me will be his salary. I hope that if we do make that big move and pay him those insane wages it is heavily incentivized both on goals and overall title sucess. If we sign him we cant pretend to be the underdog with some young inexperienced team anymore. Plenty of the players are 24,25 approaching their prime. We have to finish top 4 and win one of the cups (at least the incompetence league) 

[Pizy 18,848]

I wonder what the price could be if we do buy him. More than the €65m the Saudi club offered? The same? Less but with another player in addition to Lukaku going the other way?

If we got him for just the €65m and end up paying less for Osimhen than Spuds did for Solanke it would be pretty hilarious.

[Mhsc 1,091]

5 minutes ago, Magic Lamps said:

while I am not a fan of signing Osimhen bc of afcon, injury, general fitness, skill level etc the dealbreaker for me will be his salary. I hope that if we do make that big move and pay him those insane wages it is heavily incentivized both on goals and overall title sucess.

I don't think the club will break their approach on wages now, not for a risky guy like Osimhen - that's the kind of guy that they put in the wages rules to protect us against. I don't know what is a reasonable salary though. Maybe £150k pw base with huge incentives that can make him one of the best paid players in the world if he hits a 25-30 goal season and we are winning competitions? Who knows.

Also, one thing that occurred to me is this guy might not even pass a medical. He has serious problems for years, and we rejected Samu Omorodion after medical (who had no obvious problem to the casual observer). On the other hand we did buy Neto who has big injury history, which was waved away as saying it was mostly impact injuries.

[Magic Lamps 11,692]

15 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

I don't think the club will break their approach on wages now, not for a risky guy like Osimhen - that's the kind of guy that they put in the wages rules to protect us against. I don't know what is a reasonable salary though. Maybe £150k pw base with huge incentives that can make him one of the best paid players in the world if he hits a 25-30 goal season and we are winning competitions? Who knows.

Also, one thing that occurred to me is this guy might not even pass a medical. He has serious problems for years, and we rejected Samu Omorodion after medical (who had no obvious problem to the casual observer). On the other hand we did buy Neto who has big injury history, which was waved away as saying it was mostly impact injuries.

I hope you are right. What we know is that Osimhen has both, regular impact injuries and a dodgy skull that can refracture any day, possibly fatally so. His injury history on transfermarkt was one of the first i have seen that has multiple pages. Even at Wolfsburg where he was not a regular and only  for a year he was constantly injured. 

one thing in his favour that he hardly gets credit for here is his work rate. He absolutely puts in a shift. Presses like mad, has a huge engine, puts his body on the line. If he does not score he still can wear down opposition defenders. He is a bit like Jackson but a bit more clinical, better shot, more of a warrior and better in the air. So if he stays fit and finds his best form again he will definitely improve us. These are big ifs tho. As long as he doesn’t throw his toys out like Rom I can’t see him being a total flop. At the same time I don’t see him consistently having 25+g seasons cos he just lacks that world class technique 

Edited August 27, 2024 by Magic Lamps

[Strike 7,474]

20 minutes ago, Pizy said:

I wonder what the price could be if we do buy him. More than the €65m the Saudi club offered? The same? Less but with another player in addition to Lukaku going the other way?

If we got him for just the €65m and end up paying less for Osimhen than Spuds did for Solanke it would be pretty hilarious.

Imagine he was being shopped at 100m + last year.

and now the deal looks like 65m with Lukaku going for 45m. Net 20m euros

[Strike 7,474]

17 minutes ago, Mhsc said:

I don't think the club will break their approach on wages now, not for a risky guy like Osimhen - that's the kind of guy that they put in the wages rules to protect us against. I don't know what is a reasonable salary though. Maybe £150k pw base with huge incentives that can make him one of the best paid players in the world if he hits a 25-30 goal season and we are winning competitions? Who knows.

Also, one thing that occurred to me is this guy might not even pass a medical. He has serious problems for years, and we rejected Samu Omorodion after medical (who had no obvious problem to the casual observer). On the other hand we did buy Neto who has big injury history, which was waved away as saying it was mostly impact injuries.

I read the club is negotiating a higher sign-on fee to ensure wages remain in line with their structure.

[Pizy 18,848]

1 minute ago, Strike said:

Imagine he was being shopped at 100m + last year.

and now the deal looks like 65m with Lukaku going for 45m. Net 20m euros

If his wages weren’t so massive you’d almost call it a steal if he can hit the heights he did two seasons ago. 

[mkh 560]

Chelsea have delivered an offer to Osimhen’s agent Calenda. (@DiMarzio)