[Albion] Chelsea: "A supercharged Brighton"

[Bozza]

With an average age of 23 years and five months, the Blues already have the youngest squad in the Premier League - and it is set to get even younger from next season.

The club has had a radical shift in transfer strategy since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over from Roman Abramovich in 2022.

Most Abramovich-era players have been sold in an attempt to reduce the age of the squad - and the wage bill.

That money has then been reinvested in young talent in what appears to be a 'supercharged Brighton' approach to transfer business.

Chelsea transfers: Why are Blues stockpiling so many young players - and can they afford it?

Chelsea have six deals for rising stars lined up and have just signed two more young talents from Portuguese side Sporting. Why? And how can they afford it?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Simster]

Supercharged Brighton? Well we're highly profitable and challenging on all fronts. So that means their profits will be around the £1bn mark at the end of this tax year and they'll have a glut of trophies to show for it then. Lucky sods.

Oh wait, all they do is buy OUR players at very high prices, go out of cup competitions earlier than us, and finish about 2 places higher at best.

Supercharged Brighton? What a load of click bait wank.

 

[HP Seagull]

A hideous imitation more like.

 

[Man of Harveys]

Not just beaten: humiliated. Abjectly humiliated. Twice in one week. “Supercharged” my betty swallocks.

 

[dejavuatbtn]

Must be just great to buy your way to success. They must be very proud of themselves.

 

[essbee1]

What a disgusting bunch of ***** that club is. Utter scum.

 

[Deadly Danson]

All that money and you're still shit..

 

[A1X]

In the same way Oasis were a “supercharged Beatles”?

 

[dwayne]

Must be just great to buy your way to success. They must be very proud of themselves.

I would replace success with nothingness.....

 

[Brian Munich]

What an absolute load of arse. Chelsea's success has been dependent on the form of Cole Palmer. Unless his form picks up in the next 2 months they're going to finish outside of the Champions League places again.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

It was no secret that Todd was envious of our model when he first arrived at in the UK, and he even met with Tony at the time.

I'd guess that ideally Todd would have wanted to buy Brighton instead of Chelsea.

Instead he did the next best thing, purchased another Premier League team and attempted to recreate the model there., including taking a slew of staff to make it happen.

So, it's hardly a surprise when their model mirrors ours, just less effective at the moment

 

[WhingForPresident]

'Supercharged' Brighton? Pretty sure I recall, from their two defeats in a week tour of the Amex, that the phrase is 'Shit Brightonovealbion'

 

[CHAPPERS]

That future proofing table is stupid. United's team is only future proofed if your ambitions are mid table mediocrity providing Bruno Fernandes stays fit.

 

[Hugo Rune]

It was no secret that Todd was envious of our model when he first arrived at in the UK, and he even met with Tony at the time.

I'd guess that ideally Todd would have wanted to buy Brighton instead of Chelsea.

Instead he did the next best thing, purchased another Premier League team and attempted to recreate the model there., including taking a slew of staff to make it happen.

So, it's hardly a surprise when their model mirrors ours, just less effective at the moment

I’m not sure copying our model will work for them.

The pressure and high salaries at Chelsea together with their toxic and entitled fanbase don’t work well with our way of doing things.

 

[Flounce]

I am delighted to see that Chelsea have pre signed up a couple of expensive young midfielders so Baleba moving there in the summer is unlikely to be an attractive proposition given how many midfielders they already have

 

[Kit Napper]

I’m not sure copying our model will work for them.

The pressure and high salaries at Chelsea together with their toxic and entitled fanbase don’t work well with our way of doing things.

They haven't copied our model though. Who is their equivalent of Danny Welbeck, Lewis Dunk, Joel Veltman, Adam Webster or Solly March?

 

[Wozza]

You'd never guess that the BBC's Nizaar Kinsella is a Chelsea fan.

About as neutral as Laura Kuenssberg.

​

 

[Jim in the West]

Per the BBC article: "The accounting model makes some sense as the long contracts and amortisation - spreading the cost of a transfer over an extended period - have enabled Chelsea to get players like Caicedo on comparatively 'lower' £180,000-a-week wages, despite him costing a British transfer record £115m when joining in 2023 from Brighton." Well, yes, that was true when they bought Caicedo, but the Premier League (and UEFA) quickly closed that "loophole", and for FFP/PSR purposes, 5 years is the max period that a player's contract can be amortised over.

Whilst I loathe Chelsea and everything they stand for, in one sense their model is not too dissimilar to ours - in other words, putting a huge amount of effort in to identifying and developing young talent. However, Chelsea are doing so on such a scale that they simply treat players like commodities to be traded, whereas everything I read and hear about BHAFC is that we are genuinely focussed on what's best for the player, as well as the club.

 

[Zeberdi]

I’m not sure copying our model will work for them.

The only way Chelsea will succeed to emulate our business model longterm is if they have access to TB’s scouting data analytics when it comes to sourcing young ‘undiscovered’ talent from around the world that they can buy cheap and sell high. Which they don’t as they discovered when buying Jewell, Stewart and Winstanley. Their fan club as you say, won’t have the patience to wait 2 or 3 seasons for youngsters to develop either.

They may do well financially buying younger players and reducing wage overheads but it’s not ‘supercharged’ Brighton without TB at the helm or indeed having mature players in the mix to provide experience on the pitch. We don’t just develop youngsters at Brighton but improve older players too!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

What an absolute load of arse. Chelsea's success has been dependent on the form of Cole Palmer. Unless his form picks up in the next 2 months they're going to finish outside of the Champions League places again.

Sadly I suspect they will scrape their way to fifth or above as they must still have enough games left against the rubbish teams, but <Kevin Keegan voice> I would love it, LOVE it if they failed to make the Champions League and it affected their sponsorship targets.

Hopefully their players will all be fuming at having to go and play in the utterly pointless FIFA World Cash Grab Club Cup when they should be on the beach, mentally and physically switching off from a long season, and it will lead to a load more fatigue-based injuries for them, not just in the summer but throughout the whole of next season.