Buying players that will never play

[Bombo]

Why sign the two Australian lads, unal, zuccilini and roberts. I may be wrong on roberts but I doubt it. I get the feeling these players have been bought with the intention of up selling them in the future for a profit.
Chelsea do this constantly and it is like a sport version of human trafficking except the players involved get well paid and are not harmed. But it is trading people for profit and to me I just don't agree with it. I gues it feels slightly better when we sell an academy graduate who has come through the system but I'm of the belief that signing players of 18 plus years of age should be with the first team in mind.
Feels like we are following Chelsea's lead and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Hope we cease with this policy. I will stand corrected if any of those guys make 20first team appearances. Do you think they will?

 

[billymumphrey]

Why sign the two Australian lads, unal, zuccilini and roberts. I may be wrong on roberts but I doubt it. I get the feeling these players have been bought with the intention of up selling them in the future for a profit.
Chelsea do this constantly and it is like a sport version of human trafficking except the players involved get well paid and are not harmed. But it is trading people for profit and to me I just don't agree with it. I gues it feels slightly better when we sell an academy graduate who has come through the system but I'm of the belief that signing players of 18 plus years of age should be with the first team in mind.
Feels like we are following Chelsea's lead and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Hope we cease with this policy. I will stand corrected if any of those guys make 20first team appearances. Do you think they will?

The logic behind the two Australian lads is to buy replacements for Melbourne City. Currently A League clubs can't pay transfer fees between clubs. So Man City are 'buying' these players for Melbourne, especially as their star player, Aaron Mooy, is most likely to leave as he is too good for the club/league. So I don't think you can count them as part of this policy. As Maneal said in his press conference himself about Caceres "he will go on loan, he is not part of the squad"...

You've also got to factor in work permits. We can's sign players and get them into the first team is they can't be granted work permits. Simple as that. So until they're actually eligible to be incorporated into first team we can't judge.

 

[Ric]

I'd be pretty surprised if we made a profit on any of the players mentioned, to be honest.

 

[richards30]

I do think Roberts could make it to be honest and hopefully pep is the man to bring these young players through as he's not afraid to play them if he thinks they are good enough

 

[domalino]

Enes Unäl and Patrick Roberts don't belong in this group.

Both are highly rated youngsters with all the potential in the world to play for us in the future. They are signings like Iheanacho was - I'm assuming you aren't upset about that one?

Zuculini was clearly a shot to nothing, one of a group of four or five highly touted youngsters at River Plate who are now scattered around Europe, unfortunately he just didn't pan out.

The other 2 are for Melbourne City.

None are being bought to be sold at a profit, it is absolutely nothing like Chelsea's farming system which sees them have 30+ players on loan.

 

[Helmet Cole]

I get the op's point about the way Chelsea do business, but could you not also argue that youngsters who come to city, benefit from our development set up, don't quite make the grade for us but return to the lower leagues are benefitting those teams? Probably much better for the game than 35 yr old past it stars taking a step down for a final pay off? I'd much rather we produced goaters, than fowlers if you get my drift.

 

[Ajm1985]

From what I remember, we were vaguely committed to sign Zuculini when he had a break out season, then he's not performed at that level since. He's the odd paradox of having the potential to be a great squad player but needs to be playing to improve, which isn't going to happen. Small fee so worth a punt. Roberts and Unal are completely different. Roberts should make more match day squads and get game time at the end, he has bags of ability. Unal can't get a permit yet but is highly rated. And young as fuck, in a new country and new league. Both of the latter two seem to be additions for our future/bought to stop our competitors getting them. Hoping Roberts gets his chances as he can be magic

 

[cleavers]

From what I remember, we were vaguely committed to sign Zuculini when he had a break out season, then he's not performed at that level since. He's the odd paradox of having the potential to be a great squad player but needs to be playing to improve, which isn't going to happen.

Can't play because he can't be in the squad, had a loan last year and hardly played because he chose a team that City didn't.

 

[blue_sonic176]

Outside of a few strategic buys for clubs under the CFG umbrella, I don't think any player acquisitions were with the Chelsea model in mind.

All players are bought with the hope their values increase (and if they increase very significantly, it's because they broke in to the first team). Same goes with all youth teams. If they make the grade then great, but if not, hell yes we want a profit.

As a business model I doubt CFG thinks of player sales as the biggest contributor to their loing-term profit, which I suspect might be the case with Chelsea (just a guess).

 

[Ajm1985]

Can't play because he can't be in the squad, had a loan last year and hardly played because he chose a team that City didn't.

Yeah I know. He still is a player who needs game time to improve, but isn't going to get it with us.