Abramovich sacks 15 Chelsea staff
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Abramovich sacks 15 Chelsea staff and Scolari must raise cash for new players
Chelsea have axed nearly two-thirds of their international scouting staff in the first sign that billionaire owner Roman Abramovich may be losing patience with his club's towering levels of debt - including the £578 million that is owed to him.
In all, 15 of Chelsea's 25-strong global scouting network were made redundant on Friday, including former German international Rainer Bonhoff and others earning up to £100,000 a year.
At the same time, manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose team trounced Sunderland 5-0 yesterday, has been told that he cannot spend money in the transfer window in January because of the credit crunch, evidence that even the biggest-spending club in the world are having to rein in their budget.
Even before the current squeeze, Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon had insisted that Abramovich's aim was to balance Chelsea's books by 2010, an ambition that looks increasingly unlikely to be met. The club announced losses of £74m earlier this year and are carrying £736m of debt.
Sacking the scouts will only scratch the surface of that figure but the move still represents a major change of strategy by the club, who appointed Frank Arnesen as chief scout and director of youth development in 2005.
A Chelsea spokesman confirmed the redundancies, adding: 'We are restructuring our scouting network in order to re-focus priorities on key targets and in key territories.'
Scolari appears relaxed about the new financial constraints. He said: 'It's not (just) Chelsea who are not spending money. I think all the clubs in the world will not spend as much as they spent before.
'The situation in the world is different to six months ago. The players need to be thinking about this and the clubs need to be thinking about this.' The Brazilian insists that he needs new players after missing out on Robinho to Manchester City in August but is prepared to sell in order to buy.
He said: 'In football sometimes you don't need money to make a good change. I'm happy with the way Chelsea are thinking, which is different than before.'
Abramovich, whose personal fortune is estimated at more than £11billion, was reported to have lost £12m in last month's collapse of financial markets, mainly related to his ownership of the steel company, Evraz Group.
A spokesman for Abramovich has disputed the figure, saying that it represented only a 'paper loss' of share values.
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orbi, hope roman bankrupt
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... and so it begins...
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Cut cost... cut cost... All those redundant dead wood must cut away... No more free loaders as the club is no longer as rich as before to let them feed of it...
So many years already and they haven't even deliver a single youth player worthy of playing in the first team.
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To be a football scout is so cool... Going around watching matches and yet get paid £100,000 a year.
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Well, Roman is getting bored of Chelsea just like a rich playboy is getting sick of his girlfriend and wants to seek greener pastures.
Leeds United part II happening soon?
And, lets see if those so-called Chelsea fans will still stand by the club once Roman decides he's had enough...
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good.. at least now every fucking manutd/liverpoo fans will keep their mouth shut about chelsea using $$ to win the league
FUCK YEA!
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I believe if Roman really want to sell Chelsea...sure got some investor come buy the club one...lol
Anyway....yes some of these scouts are no good at all. We need to get quality scouts, not quantity!
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Originally posted by Y_Shun:
I believe if Roman really want to sell Chelsea...sure got some investor come buy the club one...lol
Anyway....yes some of these scouts are no good at all. We need to get quality scouts, not quantity!
i wonder who... oil man again? or some ppl in singapore? =X
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Originally posted by youyayu:
i wonder who... oil man again? or some ppl in singapore? =X
haha maybe? becuz chelsea already pieced properly already
unless roman go bankrupt if not i also doubt he will give up chelsea
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Originally posted by Y_Shun:
haha maybe? becuz chelsea already pieced properly already
unless roman go bankrupt if not i also doubt he will give up chelsea
ha nor.. maybe an indian business man come take over...
why not?
lol
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its good, the chelsea scouts dont seem to be doing anything good..
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Originally posted by stellazio:
its good, the chelsea scouts dont seem to be doing anything good..
LOL
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Originally posted by youyayu:
good.. at least now every fucking manutd/liverpoo fans will keep their mouth shut about chelsea using $$ to win the league
FUCK YEA!
because chelsea not winning?
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Personally, I don't think Roman can off load the club even should he wants to cos there are too many uncertainties at the moment with the world's economy. And the disadvantages that Chelsea has compare to other London clubs...
Whoever wants to take over the club has to consider the debts its carrying... About $730m...
There are so many ageing players who are on long term big money contracts that the buyer must consider.
The club's fan base is still not as big as Arsenal even just in London...
Their stadium is also rather small to be consider as a big 4. Tho Liverpool's is also only slightly bigger but I don't think they will have any problems filling it if they had a 60,000 stadium right now.
So even if they have a bigger stadium, not sure if they can fill it up or not on match day as presently they can't even fill the 43,000 stadium unlike Arsenal who has no problem in filling their 60,000 one.
So the disadvantage are many for anyone who wants to buy it... How much must they pay? $700 to $800 million?
With these type of amount, might as well go buy Arsenal or Liverpool. Liverpool, 450 to 500m will do, Arsenal maybe $650m... Maybe even Spurs might be more attractive.
So looking at all these disadvantages, Chelsea is not a very attractive club to take over at present unless Roman sell it at a loss. But I think he is there to stay for a few more years if he can.
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dont think there are taht many rich shieks around to buy chelsea.
this credit crunch make it difficult to raise cash unless it is straight cash purchase.
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yup many people lose paper money..but are more unlikely to take out liquid money to spend on this..
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he will never sell.
selling is admitting he failed.
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Frank Arnesen job at Chelsea is at risk
Arnesen under increasing pressure to justify his £1.8 million-a-year salary
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Frank Arnesen, the Chelsea director of scouting and youth development, is coming under increasing pressure to justify his £1.8 million-a-year salary after the club removed two thirds of the international scouts working under him in a shake-up of their talent-spotting operation.
The Times revealed on Friday that Chelsea were beginning a significant cost-cutting exercise, with Luiz Felipe Scolari being told that he must sell players before he can buy during the January transfer window, and they wasted no time by sacking 15 scouts that day.
Arnesen is likely to hold on until the end of the season because paying him off would represent more waste at a time of retrenchment, but his future will be discussed in further detail at the end of the season. The Dane agreed a one-year rolling contract when he arrived from Tottenham Hotspur and it may not be renewed.
Arnesen’s move to Chelsea caused much controversy 3½ years ago, with Tottenham reporting their London rivals to the Premier League for an alleged illegal approach before settling for £5 million in compensation. In his remit as their scouting supremo, the 52-year-old pledged to provide a youth-team player for Chelsea’s first team within three years and deliver a further player every subsequent year, but no one has made the breakthrough. John Terry, ten years ago, was the last home-grown player to become a regular.
The young players who have made league appearances in the past few years, such as Scott Sinclair, were signed from other clubs, yet Arnesen is confident of keeping his job because of the strength of his relationship with Roman Abramovich and Piet de Visser, the owner’s personal scout, but the sacking of Avram Grant at the end of last season shows that friendship is not enough to guarantee survival at Stamford Bridge.
Given such failures, Chelsea had always been planning to restructure their scouting network at the end of the season, along with looking at Arnesen’s role, but the desire to cut costs in the worsening economic climate has led them to do away with the job sooner than expected.
“We are restructuring our scouting network,” a club spokesman said. “We are refocusing our attention on key territories and key targets rather than the existing wider approach.”
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he should go.. wtf has he brought to chelsea!! his salary can be used to buy so many of arsenal or barcelona scouts!!!!!
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no good youngsters produced at all