37 minutes ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

At least Brighton but cheaply, so you’re almost guaranteed profit. We buy mediocre, young talent at a price where its almost impossible to make a profit and at worst you’re risking the future of the club. Its not a strategy, its just stupidity

Brighton have bought cheaply but very very well. Bloom's Starlizard has earned them a motza. That's the difference.

20 minutes ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

At least Brighton but cheaply, so you’re almost guaranteed profit. We buy mediocre, young talent at a price where its almost impossible to make a profit and at worst you’re risking the future of the club. Its not a strategy, its just stupidity

You are absolutely right, that it is so much harder to make profit doing this with Chelsea. But I am not sure it is about making profit, it is more about reducing cost.

6 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

You are absolutely right, that it is so much harder to make profit doing this with Chelsea. But I am not sure it is about making profit, it is more about reducing cost.

They are most assuredly trying to profit from player trading.

Imo a lot poster here think that blue co strategy is wrong and I personally don't think they are, I just don't think PE goal align with football club goal.

Edited April 20Apr 20 by Bob stark

35 minutes ago, dermott said:

They are most assuredly trying to profit from player trading.

I don't think it is possible to generate meaningful profit from player trading

Just now, Bob stark said:

I don't think it is possible to generate meaningful profit from player trading

Not unless you have a superior recruiting department in place. Which we don't.

15 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think it is possible to generate meaningful profit from player trading

We do have a problem in that being who we are, we will have to pay more than say Brighton for the same player. Which make player trading difficult.

Now the issue is that the players we'd want to sell, will actually generate a loss in our accounts so we are likely to keep the dross and sell the real talent.

A much better model would be to go all in on Cobham but it seems these SD's are here to do player trading, not to promote our own youth

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

It is something like this but not sure they are wrong. If you look at it logically, they are not wrong.

Signing two cheaper player is better than 1 expensive player as it reduce your risk, signing prospect is also better than signing older player as they tend to be cheaper and demand less salary and more importantly has much better chance to retain/increase their value in their future. It is even better if you have multi club model because it means you can sign more players.

Of course the result is as expected. We intentionally target player who are 2/3 steps away from being ready, what do you expect?

That strategy doesn’t take into consideration that you can only develop one player effectively, and if you are lucky you might end up with a good player. So signing Garnacho & Gittens for one role instead of a Semenyo might be cheaper as per you have 2 players for the price of one, you can only play one. It also doesn’t take into consideration the amount of game hours required which could be 3yrs of consistent football if you are lucky.

2 hours ago, markpitts said:

That strategy doesn’t take into consideration that you can only develop one player effectively, and if you are lucky you might end up with a good player. So signing Garnacho & Gittens for one role instead of a Semenyo might be cheaper as per you have 2 players for the price of one, you can only play one. It also doesn’t take into consideration the amount of game hours required which could be 3yrs of consistent football if you are lucky.

We are also not signing these prospects on the cheap for the most part and are still paying them a decent wage. Having this bloated squad, even with a supposed wage structure in place, explains why we have one of the highest wage bills in the Premier league.

13 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

We do have a problem in that being who we are, we will have to pay more than say Brighton for the same player. Which make player trading difficult.

Now the issue is that the players we'd want to sell, will actually generate a loss in our accounts so we are likely to keep the dross and sell the real talent.

A much better model would be to go all in on Cobham but it seems these SD's are here to do player trading, not to promote our own youth

This. Which model is the best to save cost while being competitive is a interesting discussion.

However, we don't talk about which model will help us win title which is what we all want.

43 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

This. Which model is the best to save cost while being competitive is a interesting discussion.

However, we don't talk about which model will help us win title which is what we all want.

15 years ago it would have been ludicrous to post this, but currently the economic model club is Real Madrid, who seem to integrate the best of all the approaches.

• Target free transfers of experienced players with high-wage deals

• Pay well to secure top young talents on long-term deals - high fee, moderate/low wages

• Investment in youth team for steady stream of reliable squad players and saleable assets

• Squad aims to compete for league/CL every season to ensure consistent revenue

If we look at recent years, only English clubs are paying top money for 'prime' mid-20s talent, and most of those spends have been wasteful.

Edited April 21Apr 21 by SydneyChelsea

17 hours ago, Bob stark said:

Imo a lot poster here think that blue co strategy is wrong and I personally don't think they are, I just don't think PE goal align with football club goal.

This and your other post are a bit strange @Bob stark . My answer to this one would be, ergo the posters here are correct in their thinking that the strategy is wrong because they are fans of the team and its sporting endeavours, not investors in a PE enterprise

17 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think it is possible to generate meaningful profit from player trading

Tony Bloom and Paul Barber at Brighton would beg to differ. They have made a fortune doing this.

What I would agree on is that this strategy is tempered by two aspects.

• It's a seam of tradeable talent that will undoubtedly dry up over time, so be prepared to periodically put the strategy on hold.

• It's not a viable approach that is conducive to success on the pitch unless funds are reinvested into more expensive, established, proven targets, thus undermining the strategy over time.

None of this is relevant here as our people have no real talent ID, they are just plagiarising the model of others and paying over the odds for players where there has been limited completion anyway.

18 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

15 years ago it would have been ludicrous to post this, but currently the economic model club is Real Madrid, who seem to integrate the best of all the approaches.

• Target free transfers of experienced players with high-wage deals

• Pay well to secure top young talents on long-term deals - high fee, moderate/low wages

• Investment in youth team for steady stream of reliable squad players and saleable assets

• Squad aims to compete for league/CL every season to ensure consistent revenue

If we look at recent years, only English clubs are paying top money for 'prime' mid-20s talent, and most of those spends have been wasteful.

I don't think it'possible for us to copy Madrid (I remember somebody argue that is what blue co doing , can't remember who).

RM revenue is around double of ours. We have the money to sign Tosin for free but not sure we have the money to sign TAA for free

Edited April 21Apr 21 by Bob stark

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

This. Which model is the best to save cost while being competitive is a interesting discussion.

However, we don't talk about which model will help us win title which is what we all want.

The model is simple. Hire a great coach (Klopp, Ancelotti, Enrique, Pep, Bompastor, Hayes etc. )

Plan with them who is their ideal sporting director that understands and aligns with the coach's system. Buy players that fit, promote from internal (academy or sister club or feeder club)

It doesn't get simpler than that. Money doesn't matter because we're not Brighton

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

This and your other post are a bit strange @Bob stark . My answer to this one would be, ergo the posters here are correct in their thinking that the strategy is wrong because they are fans of the team and its sporting endeavours, not investors in a PE enterprise

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

This and your other post are a bit strange @Bob stark . My answer to this one would be, ergo the posters here are correct in their thinking that the strategy is wrong because they are fans of the team and its sporting endeavours, not investors in a PE enterprise

Not sure this is the discussion all. I don't think even blue co believe that signing 19/21 years old is the best way to win trophy.

These clowns need to go. Simple as that. They were given 1.5 billion to build the squad and hire managers and failed miserably. Nowhere else in any job in this world you'd not be shown the door. With all that money these w**kers spent the past four years, Granovskaia and Roman would have at least a season out of four in which they'd have won the league title or at least go head to head with Arsenal and City until the last 2-3 rounds. Or a UCL Final. At least. 100%.

It simply is an insult to this club if these buffoons are still in charge at the end of the season and given yet another transfer window to ruin the club even more.

Enough if enough. Sack these w**k Sporting Directors and save what's there left to be saved.

Incredible how these charlatans have destroyed everything and put the owners in massive debts then pushed for a bonus

Twats and w**kers

On 22/04/2026 at 05:22, Deino said:

Incredible how these charlatans have destroyed everything and put the owners in massive debts then pushed for a bonus

Twats and w**kers

Not sure you understand the job of sporting directors

1 minute ago, Bob stark said:

Not sure you understand the job of sporting directors

To build a competitive team and not bankrupt the club.

Ours have failed in both instances.

Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian saying the five Sporting Directors are safe in the eyes of the owners.

Unbelievable.

3 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian saying the five Sporting Directors are safe in the eyes of the owners.

Unbelievable.

I heard about 5. Who are the 5? We all know about Stewart & Winstanley but who are the other 3 and why do we need so many FFS?

16 minutes ago, Nibs said:

I heard about 5. Who are the 5? We all know about Stewart & Winstanley but who are the other 3 and why do we need so many FFS?

Joe Shields, Sam Jewell, and Dave Fallows.

Why do these frauds not get sacked..

21 hours ago, Jangz said:

Why do these frauds not get sacked..

A couple more duff coach appointments like continuing with Mcfarlane and then appointing ONeill might do it. Together with a dozen or so players we cant shift.🤞Maybe Eghbali will grow wise to these SD clowns. They will be costing him a small fortune.🤞