Ever since Todd Boehly came onto the Premier League scene at Chelsea, the transfer marketplace has become fertile ground for the American.
During the first two windows of his reign at Stamford Bridge there was a tendency to buy up as much talent as could be allowed, with the past window seeing a mass exodus in order for the west Londoners to fall in line with Financial Fair Play (FFP).
Massively long contracts seem to have become the norm at the club, but this strategy means that the Blues are playing a very dangerous game according to one former football super agent, Jon Smith.
Trying to circumvent the rules in some way clearly isn’t something sustainable in Smith’s opinion.
‘Looking at Chelsea, they’re getting around this (FFP) at the moment by amortising their costs. They’re signing Player A because he’s a good player and they’re happy to pay £100m for him. They’re saying, right, Player A, you’re going to be here now for eight years, which means that £100m now is amortised over eight years, as opposed to four/five which is a normal contract,’ he wrote in his exclusive CaughtOffiside column.
‘Of course, Player A wants to make sure that he’s paid commensurately so that he doesn’t miss out in seven years time, which means Chelsea are having to inflate their wage bill at the same time, and are getting perilously close to those FFP barriers in the process.
‘If Player A doesn’t turn out to be a good player, and they have to sell him after three years, they’ve either got to swallow a huge loss, because his value will have gone down and no one else will pay his wages, or he has to sit in the reserves and collect £120,000 a week. It’s a dangerous game.’
When someone like Smith – a co-founder of the Premier League – comments, it’s worth taking note.
Given his background, Smith knows what he’s talking about, and whilst Chelsea appear to be able to skirt around the rules as they are at present, there could come a time when the chickens come home to roost at Stamford Bridge.
For now, Blues supporters can sit back, relax, and hopefully enjoy the Mauricio Pochettino reign at the club.
In the Argentinian, it’s believed that the club have finally got the right man to take them forward, and time will tell if that is indeed the case.
utter cobblers from Smith
It’s true, you know nothing about football..
Same thing is happening to Maguire. Man U don’t want to pay him off cause he’s trash and he doesn’t want to leave cause his getting paid and Man U is paying for the long contract that he was offered, even if he plays or not.
Giving a player 7 – 8 years contract and a fat check, will surely backfire at Chelsea on the long run..