Sold to Chelsea.
https://bit.ly/4iCINsi
€22.70m & €50.77m + €1.36 in add-ons respectively. Transparency.
One a Mendes client, the other shares same agent as Caicedo.
Owners not doubling, tripling down on the strategy. Commend it.
Controversial opinion -
The premise of the model is fine. The way the league and football is going has shown the younger the average age of the squad the better, doesn't need changing. Missed a trick by not appointing Hoeness - https://www.hudl.com/blog/hoene%C3%9F-stiller-vfbstuttgart-tactics?
https://www.getfootballnewsgermany.com/2025/hoeness-germany-top-manager/
I maintain younger players find it exceedingly easier adapting to coaching methodology demands and rigours of the league at this club, than senior players...clocked-up a ton of mileage on their bodies and legs, stuck & set in their ways.
You know the old adage "can't teach an old dog new tricks", that notably applies in modern day football.
Buying players under the age of 25 is sound logic for that very reason.
Question marks come into the play on the quality of the players bought, experienced, or not within that age range.
Data model got it right with the recruitment of Nicolas Jackson and almost acquiring Samu Omorodion (I'm hoping they atone for this by attaining the services of Thierno Barry triggering his release clause of €40m, who will act as a competition to Nico, covering his aerial shortcomings).
Paez, Satpaev, Estevao, Essugo, Santos, Penders all look like astute data-driven footballer buys from what's been seen and said.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6215603/2025/03/20/mike-penders-chelsea-analysis/
Where it goes pear shaped is when you don't stick to model of young players by keeping standout academy players as well. Then going onto waste money on known mediocre quantities, at the expense of said standout academy.
For example, the players bought in the summer... Specifically, Dewsbury-Hall, Felix (over Samu), and Neto (over Olise) were totally unnecessary. Write-offs from the outset.
Do I believe the club invest the amount of money they have not to be successful and lack ambition? Nope, one doesn't invest the obscene amount in players and staff in a short space of time without having the intentions of being successful in winning 🏆, not in their best interests either. They are businessmen after all.
Find it hard to understand why people peddle the notion that they don't care, they are doing it a different way from the norm which doesn't align with the universal view, which I respect in some ways. That's all.
Don't need to conform, eventually what I see happening when it inevitably becomes fruitful is the others will follow-suit and converge on the strategy.
Sure there's a period of trials and tribulations, but I think we'll come through it just fine and be in a great position to challenge in the end, they seem to be good at rectifying mistakes quickly which wasn't the case under previous ownership. Which in itself caused its own insurmountable problems.
Getting into bed with Mendes is like doing a deal with the devil, selling your soul. You avoid that and don't veer away from data driven recruitment.
Of course, you may get one like Quenda, who could turnout to be a gem, genuine superstar and hit the ground-running but in the grand scheme of things not worth it on anomalies.
Sporting officially declare Essugo & Quenda
posted on 23/3/25
posted on 24/3/25
Mf,
All this young blood stuff is very well, but we have not built a team.
looking at players in isolation is easy to do, but as a balanced squad we are as im sure you can see a million miles away from having a squad that can confidently mount a successful return to C/L status.
We are a patchwork collection of talented & not so talented individuals, who have been brought together for first financial gain opposed to the aim of returning to C/L status.
This is not to say the ownership do not want a return to C/L status, they simply have decided upon a strategy that in their mind set ensures EPL survival through player banking & trading.
They have imo, boxed themselves financially and are not capable of running an elite European football club.
The facts are they have one way or another spent over 4 bln on CFC and have gone backwards.
It is a fckn joke.
If they have spent the type of money the Saudis spent on Newcastle then we could justly say, well its learning curve and the club is in a good place.
Mf, I not sure if you do recollect, the previous ownership at CFC developed CFC into the most successful EPL side during the first two decades in the 21st century.
Not an achievement that should imo be easily disregarded.
posted on 24/3/25
Following on,
Mf , the buying strategy is directed by our ability to bring a player in on a combination of factors.
Long term finance, bartering & age , untapped long term possible potential .
We cannot afford to just lay out the full cash price for 50m- 100m anymore on the best 20-26 yr old footballers.
We are buying on the strap, putting a deposit down the rest being paid in instalments.
This will only work for a certain level of footballer, thats why we are missing out.
CFC currently do not have a hope in hell of buying a footballer of the quality y of Isyak.
Imo, it is a total joke.
posted on 24/3/25
Good article, now allow me to destroy it
The argument breaks down in paragraph five - trials and tribulations - where if this was to happen it would be an exception to the rule, i.e. we'd have got lucky. You've acknowledged yourself that player development doesn't follow a linear formula, so if you persist with adding young players on top of young players all you're doing is keeping a team in a cycle of perpetual transition - the polar opposite of what we had between 04-12 which (not coincidentally) was our most successful period as a club in it's entire history! This strategy works in Football Manager & doesn't in real life for that exact reason, the mechanics of a video game can be learnt & expolited overtime (linear development is easily achieved if you know what you're doing), but you can't 'hack' real life like that.
There's also the issue of why we're doing this? When Brighton almost entirely rely upon data driven recruitment you understand it, they're owned by a professional gambler with a tightly guarded "secret sauce" algorithm competing against financially superior competition - they use what they have! When Red Bull fanatically recruit young with a very specific profile of player in mind, i.e. energy, you understand it. They're an energy drink company owning a set of football clubs, it's an on-brand USP! We're doing it because a bunch of American guys think European football is stuck in a bygone era (not untrue in a few specific commericial aspects) and think the solution is to transpose an American style model onto an English football club that just so happened to, arguably, be the best case study of success still being possible with the "outdated" ways in the 21st century! Brighton & Red Bull are projects, we're a vanity experiment happening at a club not ready to accept it.
Then there's the issue of why no-one else has done this before? We aren't trailblazers stumbling onto the next fad here, we've become victims of the existing fad. Young players are where it's at right now, but no-one's stockpiled the first team squad quite like this for a VERY good reason - because it's logic defying! If you set out a plan to commit 1.5B into new players over the course of two years + you've inherited a more than capable team to begin with, naturally you'd think the MO was to build a super team with the likes of Bellingham, Rice, the Napoli 3, etc... this is what any other club would do (and what Roman would do). If you have the money, why wouldn't you do that? Why would you do what we've done which is essentially take one of the best resources as a big club, but move in the market like a small club? It doesn't make much sense does it
Anyway, there was actually a lot I agreed with in the article, it just didn't justify the overall point. Here's hoping we do get lucky so you can be vindicated (not surprised you love the youth revolution lol), and the rest of us can be happy too