Chelsea Thread - 2023/24

[IronsideKozuch]

I respect how Chelsea do their business. They don’t fuck about, just slap down the cash and take a new player home, I love that.

Everyone is rushing to call Boehly a fool, but maybe the business model is interesting.

He bought Chelsea well (or whoever's money is behind it), £2.3 billion is a great price, especially as about a billion of Chelsea's debt to Abramovic has been written off.

Interesting idea with the players' contracts, although risky (injuries, drops in for, troublemakers etc.).

The 800 million is de facto spread over 8 years of contracts with players, so it acquires assets for a longer period – depreciation works (reduced to 5 years from the current season).

He invests in the best youngsters (you can laugh, but Enzo, Caicedo, Mudryk, Jackson are a lot of quality and potential), he hopes their development will be great and constant. A lot of disappointments ahead of him, but investments in players are made by everyone and for the top 10/15 clubs in the world there is no other way but to blow money on the best. You arguably may be smarter about this, true, many of those deals should have been done at much better terms. On the other hand Chelsea ain’t Real, Barcelona, Bayern or – lately – City. They need to throw money at the problem, otherwise probably Caicedo and Lavia would have ended up at LFC.

Boehly’s bet is there is a lot of new revenue streams and generally more money around football and Chelsea. The FPP will catch him if Chelsea don't deliver, especially the UCL will be necessary, because if not - selling out. And that can also affect the consistency of the team, the mood, etc. But his main assumption is correct.

Moreover, he has a fair margin for error, as Chelsea alone is valued at min. 2,7bn (the big downside being the lack of title to Stamford Bridge, which belongs to supporter’s association). The wider picture is Arabia is coming big, reputable sources strongly project huge growth in USA football fan base and around the world. Football as an industry is growing all the time. It is no coincidence that Arabia, Qatar, UAE, formerly China (in a different formula, but they are working on getting back to investing in football very seriously) are investing as much as they can. They are not fools.

And I have a big problem with calling Todd Boehly that, because he might just be having a good time in life. Nobody knows actually, but maybe football side of things will turn out to work out in the end too.

 

[JRockBlues]

Wonder where the "Lavia agrees to sit on the bench for 10 years" tweet is.

 

[Corky]

Everyone is rushing to call Boehly a fool, but maybe the business model is interesting.

He bought Chelsea well (or whoever's money is behind it), £2.3 billion is a great price, especially as about a billion of Chelsea's debt to Abramovic has been written off.

Interesting idea with the players' contracts, although risky (injuries, drops in for, troublemakers etc.).

The 800 million is de facto spread over 8 years of contracts with players, so it acquires assets for a longer period – depreciation works (reduced to 5 years from the current season).

He invests in the best youngsters (you can laugh, but Enzo, Caicedo, Mudryk, Jackson are a lot of quality and potential), he hopes their development will be great and constant. A lot of disappointments ahead of him, but investments in players are made by everyone and for the top 10/15 clubs in the world there is no other way but to blow money on the best. You arguably may be smarter about this, true, many of those deals should have been done at much better terms. On the other hand Chelsea ain’t Real, Barcelona, Bayern or – lately – City. They need to throw money at the problem, otherwise probably Caicedo and Lavia would have ended up at LFC.

Boehly’s bet is there is a lot of new revenue streams and generally more money around football and Chelsea. The FPP will catch him if Chelsea don't deliver, especially the UCL will be necessary, because if not - selling out. And that can also affect the consistency of the team, the mood, etc. But his main assumption is correct.

Moreover, he has a fair margin for error, as Chelsea alone is valued at min. 2,7bn (the big downside being the lack of title to Stamford Bridge, which belongs to supporter’s association). The wider picture is Arabia is coming big, reputable sources strongly project huge growth in USA football fan base and around the world. Football as an industry is growing all the time. It is no coincidence that Arabia, Qatar, UAE, formerly China (in a different formula, but they are working on getting back to investing in football very seriously) are investing as much as they can. They are not fools.

And I have a big problem with calling Todd Boehly that, because he might just be having a good time in life. Nobody knows actually, but maybe football side of things will turn out to work out in the end too.

It won't be his risk, if it fails the club is saddled with the debt of the leveraged borrowing when he leaves. If it goes well he sells at a big profit. Certainly no fool.

 

[I'm With Stupid]

It won't be his risk, if it fails the club is saddled with the debt of the leveraged borrowing when he leaves. If it goes well he sells at a big profit. Certainly no fool.

But there's also a risk in terms of the squad. He's spent 800 million (or whatever it is), and that's being booked through the accounts over 8 years, so 100 million a year. That's how he's getting around any FFP regulations in the short term, but it also means they're basically starting every transfer window for the next 8 years having already spent 100 million, meaning that they're always going to be in a position where they have to sell in order to buy.

They're buying young players, so in theory they will have some sell on value, although almost by definition, they're only going to be selling players who haven't really performed, so they're likely to lose money on it. As I understand it though, even if you make a huge loss on a player, for the purposes of FFP, when you sell them, you can still write off the original transfer value. So if I buy Caicedo for 115 million and he flops and I sell him in a couple of years for 40 million, for the purposes of FFP, I can write off the other 75 million. Someone correct me on this if it's not true.

One thing they're presumably gambling on is seeing a huge uptick in revenues (although we're not seeing that in the latest TV deals, so it's possible we've hit a bit of a plateau there), and also inflation means that this 800 million will become less and less impactful over the 8 years.

 

[Bez]

Finances aside, he needs to let Pochetino have a proper go at melding a side together. Boehly has already sacked 2 managers who are/were highly regarded.

 

[Gray]

Christ - how many players do they need?

 

[KS55]

But there's also a risk in terms of the squad. He's spent 800 million (or whatever it is), and that's being booked through the accounts over 8 years, so 100 million a year. That's how he's getting around any FFP regulations in the short term, but it also means they're basically starting every transfer window for the next 8 years having already spent 100 million, meaning that they're always going to be in a position where they have to sell in order to buy.

They're buying young players, so in theory they will have some sell on value, although almost by definition, they're only going to be selling players who haven't really performed, so they're likely to lose money on it. As I understand it though, even if you make a huge loss on a player, for the purposes of FFP, when you sell them, you can still write off the original transfer value. So if I buy Caicedo for 115 million and he flops and I sell him in a couple of years for 40 million, for the purposes of FFP, I can write off the other 75 million. Someone correct me on this if it's not true.

One thing they're presumably gambling on is seeing a huge uptick in revenues (although we're not seeing that in the latest TV deals, so it's possible we've hit a bit of a plateau there), and also inflation means that this 800 million will become less and less impactful over the 8 years.

Not sure the “write off” example is correct. If a player cost 115m he would be on the balance sheet at 69m after 2 years amortisation. So if sold for 75m that would be booked as 6m profit. Amortisation is the process of writing off the original cost over 5 years. It is depreciation.

 

[Fordyboy46]

Who signs today then, seriously even Chelsea fans must be getting bored with all their signings, it's just ridiculous.
If Olise signs that will make it 29 players bought in three windows, i don't think Pep has signed that many in his eighth season here

 

[Fordyboy46]

Christ - how many players do they need?

47

 

[Gray]

Who signs today then, seriously even Chelsea fans must be getting bored with all their signings, it's just ridiculous.
If Olise signs that will make it 29 players bought in three windows, i don't think Pep has signed that many in his eighth season here

I think they are aiming for two teams, one plays all the home games the other the aways.

Two different styles, attacking at home and defensive away.

It could be a master stroke and keep all the players fresh throughout the season.