Financial Situation

Okay so this club is poorly managed in terms of the financial aspects. Last season we recorded losses of 70m. And what was the headline on the official site? "Chelsea become cash positive"...

This was after the previous season we had recorded losses of, if I remember right, 40m or so. And this season is not looking any better. Sacking Carlo has cost us 6m, while getting Hiddink will cost us 4m. That's 10m just to get Hiddink already. Plus the over-sized salary we will give him with the 3-4 year contract, which we will end at most in the second year. This is already a large number just to change managers, and I haven't even added the 70m we spent in January. Is Roman serious about making the club self-sufficient? Well I hope he realizes that with the Fair Play rules coming up, there will be no hiding from that and that will inevitably force Roman to let the club live within its means. Not saying that with the rules we won't be able to participate in the Champions League, as I'm sure the club's lawyers already know what is expected of the club, but currently I can't see how in the long term we will survive. But it's worth pointing out that clubs are allowed to post losses of up to 65m over the first 5 years (and then that amount will keep decreasing), but even for that we're going to need major cutbacks at the club.

One issue is obviously the wage bill. Our wage bill is the highest in the league, and given our performance last season, I can't understand what folks at our club are doing to keep their high wages. Why Roman hasn't really been doing anything about this I don't know. Another issue is that Roman is very impatient; one bad half season and immediately he splashes out 70m, 50m on a player that could prove to be a flop and one that doesn't even fit our system. Going along with that is the lack of action given to our fantastic youths, which I find surprising as Roman has spent an odd 40m on. He did seem serious with them last summer when he promoted Bruma, Sturridge, Mceachran, Aanholt and Kakuta to the squad (it now seems very likely that Carlo reluctantly agreed to this), but he seemed to have lost patience with them when they weren't even given a proper chance. If an owner was serious about letting the club live within its own means, then he never would have spent so much and increase our wage bill (Torres is earning around 160k). Other clubs promote their youths to the squad and actually use them so that they don't have to spend heavily in the market, but we aren't doing this. And sacking Wilkins wasn't really the best thing to do.

But he has put a lot of money into the club so it's fair to think that he wants instant success, but if he keeps losing his patience then Chelsea need another owner. Right now I can't see Roman forcing himself to keep his wallet closed if he thinks the team is not good during the Fair Play rules, but that will be something he'll have to deal with because either that or no CL. Maybe he thinks that it's best to spend as much as you can now and build a great team before the rules, but seeing that UEFA will start looking into the club's finances from next season, it seems to be a bit too late. You have to wonder how much loss we're going to post for this season and how difficult it would be to even out. In fact, at this rate, when are we going to be self-sufficient?

He's invested heavily into our youth System so he has tried. The only problem I see is his impatience. TBH I would love us to soley focus on (and win) the CL this year as he would then be less likely to open up the wallet.

This would also give us a nice bonus which would help greatly. So far we've only been interested in youngsters (with the exception of Kaka who I don't think we were ever really after.) Which shows he wants to secure the future of the club but you're right, It might be too late.

I think if we can only lose 20-40m in transfers this year we'll be fine providing they don't flop. I also think the winter spending we did was a once off thing. Roman would be crazy to try it again.

If Carlo wasn't so reluctant on playing our youth I doubt we'd be in this position.

On the bright side, If we sell Malouda, Bosingwa, Hilario, Anelka and buy the likes of Lukaku, Neymar and Van Der Wiel our squad age will drop but a lot. As long as they don't flop we'd have a team for the next 7 years or so and by then hopefully are youth's are able to step up.
In 7 years our squad could look like this:
------------------Cech (36)
VDW(30)-Bruma(26)-Luiz(30)-PVA(27)
-------------------Mikel(30)
--------Ramires(30)------Josh(25)
Sturridge(28)-Lukaku(25)-Neymar(26)

With a few introductions we've got a starting XI for the next 7 years. Then as long as our youth system keeps improving we'll have no problem replacing those older players with our own home grown players.

Barcelona anyone?

kick mars wrote:
On the bright side, If we sell Malouda, Bosingwa, Hilario, Anelka and buy the likes of Lukaku, Neymar and Van Der Wiel our squad age will drop but a lot. As long as they don't flop we'd have a team for the next 7 years or so and by then hopefully are youth's are able to step up.
In 7 years our squad could look like this:
------------------Cech (36)
VDW(30)-Bruma(26)-Luiz(30)-PVA(27)
-------------------Mikel(30)
--------Ramires(30)------Josh(25)
Sturridge(28)-Lukaku(25)-Neymar(26)

With a few introductions we've got a starting XI for the next 7 years. Then as long as our youth system keeps improving we'll have no problem replacing those older players with our own home grown players.

Barcelona anyone?

Easier said than done mate, unfortunately.

I know it is but it shows we are trying to do it.

I imagine without massive Transfers we'll still be able to buy one decent player every season so I'm not too worried yet. However, If good ol' 'arry takes over then I'll be worried.

Roman tried the not spending way last season and he was forced to spend in January because of that. We just spent for Ramires last summer if I'm not mistaken. But in the end we have spent something around 90m at the end of the season. As kick mentioned above the problem was mainly due to Carlol.

We had a vision last season by playing 5 youth players. But it didnt keep. I really hope that we adopt that idea again. And actually stick to that for a change. This was a long term plan of Abra. He built the academy up quite a while ago. He gave enough time for the young lads to come up, he got great young talents from around the world.

That pretty much proves that he has a philosophy that he follows. Maybe it wasn't there when he bought the club, but he surely has it now. So I dont think that there is a problem of him losing interest or whatever that lots of people think.

The other thing is, If we stick to it our youth will only get better and better.

We also need to invest in the right youngsters E.g Sturridge, Piazon.

We just need players to get other this initial bump which is FFP.

Once it's in full swing we'll do fine.

Yea, but I dont expect every summer to be a big spending summer after this summer. Or Winter lol.

It shouldn't be, We'd be crazy to spend like we've done in the past.

Yeah but I think we need to spend this summer, not a lot.. but we need to spend a bit more than normal.

What do you consider to be a normal amount then?

Thats the hardest part, working out how much we're going to spend.

Normal, anywhere around 15-30m. 15 is ideal IMO. thats for one full season. Every decade or two its ok to spend about 50m i guess... lol

I think we're going to spend more than that but our total loss will be in the area

kick mars wrote:The other thing is, If we stick to it our youth will only get better and better.

We also need to invest in the right youngsters E.g Sturridge, Piazon.

We just need players to get other this initial bump which is FFP.

Once it's in full swing we'll do fine.

Our youth will not become better and better if we don't trust them enough to give them a starting place in a PL match and not just when we're winning 3-0 or against easy oppositions.

kick mars wrote:What do you consider to be a normal amount then?

Thats the hardest part, working out how much we're going to spend.

We should spend as much as the club can based on the money they get. Otherwise it adds up being debt, which Roman has to cheque off.

I imagine after what happened last year our youth will be played next season.

Spending what you make is what FFP is all about.

I'm gonna love the FFP rules. This market is way to inflated, and yes are to be blamed among others. I'm not such a big fan of the way Roman spent when he joined us and how City are spending, but lets just say that I don't mind competing at the top either.

These rules over the decade would hopefully wipe that out.

I agree with you, Roman's spending isn't always the best. torres for example.

I was not happy when he came. I am looking forward to FFP but we need to start premoting youth otherwise all of our decent youth players will leave us and we'll be in trouble.

I mean I like the idea of a transfer market, it makes things very exciting and gives a chance for clubs to improve. Personally I think that's what a lot of sports lack, and is something which football has an advantage over.

But at the same time you shouldn't be misusing it. Hopefully UEFA are serious about this.

I have nothing against the transfer market but it's gotten way out of hand, I would rather see us playing Sturridge up front than buying Torres but that won't happen sadly.

I wanted Aguero instead of Torres but I don't mind Torres tbh.

I wouldn't mind the big spending but I would like us to spend like 15m-20m per season tbh.. nothing more. And keep players when they grow old.. atleast a couple of em