Tooling up: The summer 2024 transfer thread

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

We should tell Chelsea.

Who knew a club could get even more chaotic? Still, I daresay they can afford the overheads.

Be interesting to see how Raheem Sterling balances what must surely be the conflicting desires to play international football (ie not go to the Middle East) with his presumable desire to keep earning £300k per week (ie have to go to the Middle East).

Or maybe he'll hope Chelsea will pay him off. They do seem somewhat fiscally lackadaisical, don't they?

[GhostoftheBok]

Chelsea are trying to institute an entirely new model.

They're not building a squad for a manager, they view players as "stock" from which a head coach can select a squad - with the rest being traded or loaned. If they get rid of a head coach they can almost entirely change the squad in any window, by switching loans around.

The massive player stock also increases the value of the club and lets them access cheaper finance when needed.

At the minute it looks like a disaster, but they think it'll take a couple more windows to settle and then make them the most powerful club in world football, able to change their football in the blink of an eye and always have the necessary players on hand - with a huge depth of world class talent hoarded like dragon gold.

Visionaries or fools?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

DP.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Chelsea are trying to institute an entirely new model.

They're not building a squad for a manager, they view players as "stock" from which a head coach can select a squad - with the rest being traded or loaned. If they get rid of a head coach they can almost entirely change the squad in any window, by switching loans around.

The massive player stock also increases the value of the club and lets them access cheaper finance when needed.

At the minute it looks like a disaster, but they think it'll take a couple more windows to settle and then make them the most powerful club in world football, able to change their football in the blink of an eye and always have the necessary players on hand - with a huge depth of world class talent hoarded like dragon gold.

Visionaries or fools?

Debt-burdened up to the bollocks and beyond, but it hasn't hurt the rags. Well, not half as much as losing that purple-faced fella.

It works well on paper, but as we all know, things change rapidly in Big Finance...

[GhostoftheBok]

Debt-burdened up to the bollocks and beyond, but it hasn't hurt the rags. Well, not half as much as losing that purple-faced fella.

It works well on paper, but as we all know, things change rapidly in Big Finance...

I think the issue they'll have is that ordinarily stock doesn't get upset about being treated like stock. People tend to.

They're also assuming they can always find loan placements for 20-odd players.

I mean, best of luck to the mad bastards. They'll need an entire department to oversee the loans.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Debt-burdened up to the bollocks and beyond, but it hasn't hurt the rags. Well, not half as much as losing that purple-faced fella.

It works well on paper, but as we all know, things change rapidly in Big Finance...

I think the issue they'll have is that ordinarily stock doesn't get upset about being treated like stock. People tend to.

They're also assuming they can always find loan placements for 20-odd players.

I mean, best of luck to the mad bastards. They'll need an entire department to oversee the loans.

They've got one. They've also got Carlo Cudicini coaching the to-be-loaned player separately, as Maresca refuses to have a crowd scene on the training field. If everyone under contract were involved in his first-team sessions it'd look like human soup, or at least a park run.

Makes our "two too many players this week" problems look (literally) manageable (he said, gently touching base on BWFC).

Chelsea pioneered the factory farming of promising kids as a financial swerve, so it's no real surprise they'd be eyeing the next scheme.

[GhostoftheBok]

It's fascinating from a technical standpoint, because they're doing everything you're taught not to do.

You don't create a squad that's impossible to keep happy. You don't block pathways by signing young players ahead of your top talents. You don't phase-out a player on a huge contract without buyers lined up. You don't sign players the current manager doesn't want in the hope the next manager does.

They are absolutely certain they're getting it right, though.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Is this the 2024 version of big clubs signing players for no other reason than to stop them going to rivals?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Is this the 2024 version of big clubs signing players for no other reason than to stop them going to rivals?

Sort of. But also spending money to get players so you have "assets" so you can borrow money to spend money to get players so you have "assets" so....

...I'm sure it'll all end fine.

[sonicthewhite]

Chelsea are trying to institute an entirely new model.

They're not building a squad for a manager, they view players as "stock" from which a head coach can select a squad - with the rest being traded or loaned. If they get rid of a head coach they can almost entirely change the squad in any window, by switching loans around.

The massive player stock also increases the value of the club and lets them access cheaper finance when needed.

At the minute it looks like a disaster, but they think it'll take a couple more windows to settle and then make them the most powerful club in world football, able to change their football in the blink of an eye and always have the necessary players on hand - with a huge depth of world class talent hoarded like dragon gold.

Visionaries or fools?

All visionaries are fools until the vision comes true. Then they become trailblazers!

[GhostoftheBok]

Is this the 2024 version of big clubs signing players for no other reason than to stop them going to rivals?

Sort of. But also spending money to get players so you have "assets" so you can borrow money to spend money to get players so you have "assets" so....

...I'm sure it'll all end fine.

They're also targeting players they believe to be significantly undervalued in the current market and then giving them contracts that make them far more valuable on the books, meaning they're effectively turning £10 into £20 every time they sign someone.

So these long contracts spread the cost of the transfer fee over 5-7 years, but they also make the asset more valuable.

Felix is about to go into their books at a £110m asset, if press figures are to be believed.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

∆ True, but it only takes a tweak to the amortisation rules to leave you in trouble.

[GhostoftheBok]

∆ True, but it only takes a tweak to the amortisation rules to leave you in trouble.

It's a huge gamble and the determination of football authorities to shut it down may land them in trouble, yeah.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Has the whiff of sub prime about it. Lets hope it isn't taxpayers bailing them out this time!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Has the whiff of sub prime about it. Lets hope it isn't taxpayers bailing them out this time!

Financial whizkids slapping each other's backs over clever "instruments" that subvert rules in the aim of boosting the bottom line? What's the worst that could happen?

Incidentally, earlier in this discussion I said Sterling was on £300,000 per week. i withdraw that. per the Guardian, it's £325,000.

[GhostoftheBok]

Has the whiff of sub prime about it. Lets hope it isn't taxpayers bailing them out this time!

"Too big to fail"...they hope.

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

it's £325,000.

Good to know where yer Sky subscriptions are going

[jmjhb]

Morley gone to Wycombe on loan for the season.

That must mean someone else will be coming in?

[The_Gun]

Morley gone to Wycombe on loan for the season.

That must mean someone else will be coming in?

Not necessarily, we needed to free up squad space.

A good move for Aaron, I’d say. He’s not a kid anymore so needs to be playing regularly, and that didn’t look to be on the cards for him at Bolton. Let’s hope he can establish himself at Wycombe and then maybe we can make some money from him next summer.

[GhostoftheBok]

Definitely not at the same level as Thommo, Sheehan and Matete right now.

Lots of ability. Hope he shows more of it at Wycombe than he did here last season.