Chelsea ditch expensive foreign kids
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Chelsea ditch expensive foreign kids
Chelsea have begun a clear-out of their underperforming youth ranks as the club attempt to refocus their academy recruitment efforts on young English talent. A large group of players caught in limbo between Luiz Felipe Scolari's senior squad and Chelsea's under-18 team have been made available for transfer or loan - with the club offering to subsidise their unusually high wages in some cases.
Having not played on loan to Portsmouth, Israel striker Ben Sahar has been moved to Dutch Eredivisie strugglers De Graafschap. Danish forward Morten Nielsen - whose father Benny was employed by the club as a scout - is close to joining Saint-Etienne on loan. Italian centre-back Vincenzo Camilleri may return to Reggina, while Portugal youth internationals Fábio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes have rejected transfers to Italy and Spain, despite Chelsea offering to pay off the remaining six months of their contracts in full. The futures of a number of English players on loan at lower-division clubs are also under consideration.
Signed before Frank Arnesen's multi-million-pound appointment as chief scout and director of youth development, Ferreira and Fernandes are at the low end of the wage scale at £85,000 a year. Many of Arnesen's recruits take home more than £150,000.
Embarrassingly, the Dane has spent much of his recent time attempting to move his lauded signings on. His failure to establish "the best youth development programme in the world" and produce a player a season for the first team, coupled with comments made about Roman Abramovich's straitened finances, have angered the owner and have led to Arnesen losing influence at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea officials say the departures of certain youth players is a natural part of the academy assessment process, unconnected with efforts to economise. The club currently have 20 England youth internationals between the ages of 15 and 18, but are seeking to increase that number.
Scolari, meanwhile, has moved to assert his authority over the senior squad by handing out a list outlining a range of penalties to be exacted for ill-discipline. The punishments include fines of several hundred pounds for every minute a player is late for training or club travel, several thousand pounds for leaving the country without permission and others for breaching the dress code by wearing hats.
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Fábio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes earn so much??? i stun sia
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Its per year leh... But still a lot lah for kids only...
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Chelsea pay Zahavi £900,000
Chelsea paid agent Pini Zahavi around £900,000 commission following Wayne Bridge’s transfer to Manchester City.
Chelsea recently sacked scouts, halved the players’ ticket allocation and considered charging them for food at the training ground.
A Chelsea spokesman said: “It can be confirmed that the agent Pini Zahavi acted for Chelsea on the transfer of Wayne Bridge. All football and any other relevant regulations were followed to the letter. We were very satisfied with the transfer fee received for this transfer.
“Chelsea does not work exclusively with any one agent.”
The Mirror’s revelation about Zahavi’s involvement in a straightforward domestic transfer will provoke astonishment in many quarters because of the current economic climate and chief executive Peter Kenyon’s claim that the club must cut costs.
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wa lao
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wah, charge own players for their food ar, so kua zhang.
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the chelsea yesterday, was nvr the same as today's
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Another powerful agent... along with Jorge Mendes.
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There was a lot of hype about Sahar at one point, wasn't there?