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In the years ahead, Chelsea’s experiment under its American investors will serve as a fascinating case study in running a football club.
Because no one, in England or anywhere else, has ever seen what has happened at Stamford Bridge over the past two years.
Check this out: Since the Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner led a consortium Todd Boley and Clearlake Capital acquire Premier League club In May 2022, the company bought the company from its long-time owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, for $3.2 billion.
Considering the club has had four different full-time managers during this period, and Another interim coach — while the revolving door of Chelsea, six-time English champions and two-time European champions, never stops turning.
“From the outside, it doesn’t look like a mess.” Enzo Maresca, new Chelsea head coachOn Wednesday, he tried to explain why Real Madrid signed two wingers, Pedro Neto and Joao Felix, for a combined $130 million in the past week, increasing its squad to 43 players.
Meanwhile, the team already has five wingers, including Mykhailo Mudryk, who signed last year for more than $100 million, and Raheem Sterling, another This is the first signing ceremony of the unprecedented two-year tram sprint Valued at nearly $60 million.
Maresca said Sterling was stripped of his squad number after Neto’s arrival and was one of about 20 players who “trained separately”. Romelu Lukaku, signed three years ago The world’s most expensive goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, was signed for a then-club record $135 million, with a signing fee of $92 million.
There seems to be little point in Chelsea’s new era, as they struggled in the Premier League last season, finishing 12th and then sixth.
“It’s been a crazy phenomenon so far and there’s no sign of it slowing down,” Dr. Dan Plumley, an expert on sports finance at Sheffield Hallam University, told The Associated Press.
Plumlee said it was no surprise that Chelsea’s owners initially took an “aggressive” approach in the transfer market to overhaul their squad, despite $280 million in the summer of 2022The club spent $350 million in January 2023 and more than $400 million in the offseason that year, which is unprecedented for a football club. In the current transfer window, the club has paid more than $250 million for 10 players.
“You think, ‘This is just the initial burst, but now you have to rein it in a little bit,’ ” Plumlee said in a phone interview. “But they seem to be continuing, and it makes you wonder what their real strategy is and what the owners are trying to do.”
With backgrounds in private equity and venture capital, Boehly and Clearlake took a radically different approach to soccer ownership and redirected their efforts when dealing with the sport’s Financial Fair Play restrictions.
They typically give new signings seven to nine year contracts to spread out the “amortization” cost of the entire transfer fee. This has prompted UEFA and the Premier League to tighten the rules, and overall it is a risky strategy because Chelsea are at great risk if the new recruits do not perform well and cannot stay at Chelsea.
They focus on selling homegrown or academy players, mainly because they can sell them at a net profit in the annual accounts, thus facilitating the purchase of other more established players through amortised transactions. Conor Gallagher’s departurethe team’s vice-captain last season, and young players like Ian Matson, Lewis Hall and Omari Hutchinson played at the end of last financial year, balancing the books in a way that some considered inelegant.
Chelsea’s owners have sold two hotels at Stamford Bridge to another company they own – a deal that is being closely watched by the Premier League, according to new reports. They have also been considering selling a stake in their successful women’s team to raise funds.
Plumlee said Chelsea’s strategy had taken the club “very close to … or even over” the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. This could mean the team could be deducted points in the future, just as Everton and Nottingham Forest Last season.
It doesn’t help that Chelsea is currently not participating in the lucrative men’s Champions League, which is depriving the club of nearly $100 million in revenue per season.
“It was very risky at the beginning and it’s still very risky now,” Plumlee said of the Chelsea owners’ approach. “There are a lot of things that could cause problems later on.”
In the short term, however, the biggest problem lies with Maresca, an inexperienced manager who must deal with a bloated squad filled with a growing number of frustrated players whom Chelsea are eager to offload, such as high-profile internationals Lukaku, Sterling and Ben Chilwell.
“I trained with 21 players. Another 15 or 20 were training alone,” Maresca said. “They were Chelsea players but they didn’t train with me. I didn’t see them.”
We have a strong squad at the start of this season. Lost 0-2 to Manchester City He will continue his Premier League campaign with a trip to Wolverhampton on Sunday.
Source: AP
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