Not sure you can really accuse them of letting him go when Liverpool have very clearly just offered him loads of money to get him to join
Was more a general point on Chelsea tbf not sure what we have offered him but doubt it's something Chelsea couldn't just match.
It really doesn't. I don't really get it as they are throwing players in there and they don't go to the u21s, there's a real lack of leadership as a result in the senior group and too many people vying for limited playing time. I just find it odd that there's so many all of the same profile, all of roughly the same age going to Chelsea. Lfc are trying to poach talent and put it into u18s and promote quickly to u21 and then out on loan if needed. There's not a glut of players in the same position at the same age all hoping for a chance Let's see what happens to Chelsea in 5 years as this is like a savings bond. They amortise them over time then any fee they get for the player at the end is their dividend Maybe these kids will all be worth 35mil from just growing up. I don't know. It does seem madness when a few now players are needed.
Next signing. Don't know too much about him, but seems to be rated. Does probably mean that KWP's off though, unfortunately. Glad it wasn't Max Aarons.
Out of all the rando South American wonderkids though, Estevao and Paez are supposed to be more of the real thing. I do anticipate both go straight to the senior squad when they can. I do agree though the FM approach of raiding youth players when you have a good academy is very aggressive. A few here and there is ok but it seems Chelsea are signing 5-10 rando teenagers a summer
I don't think those in charge of Chelsea bought the club with the intention of selling off assets to fund exoribitant spending. It's just a consequence of a major gamble that has so far backfired. As for the strategy of signings wonderkids/the best young talent from around the globe before they explode in value, let's not pretend Real Madrid haven't been doing this for years. Marcelo, Robinho, Casemiro, Varane, Odegaard, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Endrick, Arda Guler, Camavinga....I'm sure there are others.
How many were they signing on average each Summer though? A big issue for Chelsea has been the turnover. If you sign a bunch of footballers of a similar age at the same time you are relying on them coming good at the same time. And there's only so many minutes you can grant them all. In the end their best signing so far has been Cole Palmer. You are asking a number of young players coming from South America and acclimatising in England whilst joining a club that I struggle to imagine has a particularly welcoming atmosphere these days due to the constant player/coaching turnover. It's unsurprising South Americans have joined a club like Real Madrid and not had a big issue in that regard for example.
They haven't and are never likely to do so ,but if it makes for sensational headlines who am I to differ ? Liverpool believe they have signed one of the most exciting youngsters in English football in Rio Ngumoha. And it is believed an angry Chelsea have been left furious with how they have lost one of the brightest talents in their academy to a Premier League rival. The Reds have tracked the England Under-16 international for some time and are now set to bring him into the fold at the Kirkby Academy ahead of the new season. It's expected Ngumoha will be blooded into the Under-18s setup with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson for the coming campaign before being assessed for a potential call-up to the U21s and Liverpool are delighted at managing to bring the 15-year-old to their thriving Kirkby base.Club scouts have been hugely impressed with the skillful winger during checks and after listening to the enticing pitch laid out by Liverpool, Ngumoha is now on the cusp of moving to Merseyside. It's believed Chelsea are furious with how Ngumoha has been allowed to leave for what will be a nominal fee for a 15-year-old, although suggestions they have broken their wage structure to land the winger have been rubbished. It's understood the arrival of Ngumoha is in-keeping with existing policies that are strictly set out by long-serving Academy director Alex Inglethorpe and the youngster will be on a scholarship wage at Kirkby once he officially becomes a Reds player. The club's recent track of blooding players from their academy ranks into the first-team is understood to have been key to the decision over the move with the 2024 Carabao Cup final cited as the perfect example of the two contrasting strategies at both clubs. Liverpool won the game at Wembley 1-0 thanks to Virgil van Dijk's extra-time header but finished the match with James McConnell, Bobby Clark and Jayden Danns all on the pitch and they were also able to name Caoimhin Kelleher, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley and Harvey Elliott in the team on the day, four players who all sharpened their skills in the youth ranks at Anfield. Both Quansah and Bradley have emerged as first-team options for the long term based on the back of them grasping their respective chances last season, while the likes of Kaide Gordon, Ben Doak and Lewis Koumas all earned senior minutes as Trey Nyoni became the youngest player to feature for the Reds in an FA Cup tie, aged 16 years and 243 days. In contrast, Chelsea have signed over 30 players since the summer of 2022 with owner Todd Boehly and his Clearlake Capital consortium committing over £1billion on transfer incomings since taking over from Roman Abramovich two years ago. Such an eye-watering outlay has inevitably had an impact on the ability of Chelsea's teenage talents to stake their claim but the club's willingness to invest huge sums for players in a similar age range from around the world has also been an issue. In June 2023, it was confirmed Chelsea would be signing Kendry Paez from Ecuador side Independiente del Valle for around £18m to join up with his new club after his 18th birthday next year, while it was reported last month that the Londoners have also coughed up £29m to land 17-year-old Estevao Willian from Brazilian side Palmeiras. Under Jurgen Klopp Liverpool had a proven track record of developing pathways for their most talented youngsters with elite development coach Vitor Matos becoming an influential and important figure behind the scenes in helping get the club's best hopefuls in front of the first-team manager as often as possible. Matos's end-of-season exit has led to Liverpool recruiting Aaron Briggs to a similar role with the former Manchester City man now tasked with being the bridge between the academy and senior departments at the club's Kirkby base. Liverpool have been keen to pursue the best young talents across the country since the introduction of laws that came off the back of the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union at the end of 2020, which made signings from the continent more difficult. Stefan Bajcetic's addition to the ranks in December of 2020 was rushed through from Celta Vigo to ensure Liverpool signed the midfielder ahead of the deadline. The ECHO reported last month that Liverpool were closing in on the signing of 16-year-old Alvin Ayman from Wolves having brought in Nyoni from Leicester and defender Amara Nallo from West Ham United last summer. Prior to that, Clark and Doak were brought in from Newcastle United and Celtic for £1.5million and £600,000 respectively and Gordon was signed from Derby County for a fee that may rise to £3m. Calum Scanlon, meanwhile, was signed from Birmingham City for £400,000. Liverpool's plan for Rio Ngumoha as scouts delighted and Chelsea furious
It's really is just Chelsea all over reading their fans waxing lyrical about the youth player's they'd never heard of or seen play signing for big money from South America... and then shrugging at losing a home-grown talent for peanuts because they "might not make the step up".
Which turns out to be false anyway.... End of the day the reason a player like that can be convinced to look elsewhere is because he (and his reps/family) will see what is happening at Chelsea and question whether it is the right place for the player's future development. I am sure this will be a concern echoed throughout the Chelsea youth ranks. And that is the fault of the decision makers at the club. The player may well turn out to do very little but the issue Chelsea have is they currently need those HG players coming through to balance the books and they're not going to be producing them.
20 year old Canadian forward Daniel Jebbison in from Sheffield Utd for 1.5m. The second signing of the summer and the second in the ‘young cheapish up and coming and possibly loaned out to somewhere in the structure’ bucket. Shows what the club are going for currently. First team remains unchanged really and that’s ok. Time yet we’ll see.
We didn’t let him go though. We tried our best to keep him but we couldn’t give a 15 year old a guaranteed pathway to the first team.
We can't keep them all. Tyrique George is arguably our best player in the academy and Rio Ngumoha plays in the same position. Cobham in itself is very competitive. For every Ngumoha and MacAidoo we lose out on, there is a Acheampong, Dyer, Mhueka, Samuels-Smith, George, and Castledine. Pathways to the first team are even more limited when players first need to stand out against their Cobham compatriots competing in the same position. Think this is getting far too much media attention because it's Chelsea. Carbon copy of the Brewster situation, albeit Brewster was rated higher.
Well, I was only going off what Gal said for my earlier comment. Based on a quick Google search both claims appear to be fairly dubiously sourced tbh, so it seems to me that it's one of those "believe who you want to believe" scenarios. I'd be glad if it turns out he did move for non-monetary reasons though, it's depressing how mercenary all players seem to be
I agree. From the outside Chelsea owners started with 500 mil on senior players like koulibaly, sterling, aubameyang etc. They got this spectacularly wrong as whoever was advising them hadn't a clue and they didn't buy for the manager. They also lost rudiger, azpi and tuchel so stripped the real leaders out. They then pivoted to buying hot tickets like fernandez and some youths. This filled with Potter They then pivoted again with buying 100 young players for 20 to 25mil and this fails beacuse there's no leadership There's a lot of talent there bit little focus at executive level so let's see what papching half of Brighton brings. They need the manager to stay and be given time plus to identify a real 25 man squad to stick with and stop random buying I do think there's a very good team possible if someone now culls thst squad and gets just one really good cb as a leader (none of them are) and a good striker. They've enough all over the other places to really kick on and stop the nonsensical spending. They will spend 200 mil but just buy 2 players for it and they will imo be able to head towards top 4 (not arsenal or city level)
Even if it was true, I've read Liverpool's wage structure for the academy is no more than £50k per year which is less than £1k per week. Crazy money in the real world but still peanuts in Premier League terms. So if they do believe the kid is the real deal, "smashing the academy wage structure" could be a £2k per week wage. Not exactly mind numbing figures.
