Mat Loup

Does anyone know what he does though? 👀👀🤣🤣

Chelsea is trapped in a cycle of what I want to call “premature monetization.” What I mean by that is that they’re selling players when resale value peaks rather than when football value declines. That leads to players being moved on at their highest market price rather than when their performance on the pitch starts to drop. Remember how Roman bought players approaching their prime and sold them when performance dropped? That’s in the good old days when only giving one-year extensions was controversial. I’ve been struggling with how to explain this contrasts and realised something. What looks like rational asset trading on the books is hiding what is effectively systematic squad depreciation. In the long term, when players are removed just as they are about to deliver their best seasons, it is leaving gaps that are filled by less experienced replacements. Jackson -> Delap. Madueke -> Garnacho. The net effect is a gradual hollowing out of the first eleven. Every year we get a bit less experience, less continuity, fewer authoritative leaders, and less proven quality in their prime. A real-life example of this is Spurs, where their squad has decayed since the Poch years to now facing relegation. Key players are declining or out on long term injury. There hasn’t been a successful transition to a new peak-level group in their prime. However, on the finance side Spurs doesn’t have Chelsea’s level of operating losses. So not only is Chelsea trying to compete in a cycle of premature monetization, but the balance sheet is also eroding from record operating losses. This is not a good combination. You now need to fear for the club itself, not only the debt.