Chelsea transfer tactic slammed as ‘UNACCEPTABLE’ as club look to offload stars with deadline days away
CHELSEA’S “bomb squad” transfer tactic has been slammed as the Professional Footballers’ Association aims to get it banned.
The Blues have expelled 13 players from first-team training as they look to force them out of the club.
Raheem Sterling and Ben Chilwell are among the players banished from Enzo Maresca’s sessions at the club’s Cobham base.
Both players have been linked with exits amid reported interest from Manchester United.
Sterling is even understood to be open to joining the Red Devils before the transfer window closes on Friday.
However, the PFA now want the Premier League and Fifa to stop clubs from using the approach with unwanted players.
According to the Daily Mail, the players’ union has been in contact with Chelsea players and their representatives.
They have also been in touch with other exiled players elsewhere in England.
Although the PFA cannot comment on specific clubs or cases, they are proactively trying to help find resolutions where aware of problems.
The report adds that the group have been campaigning on the issue for several years and they are still actively pushing for so-called bomb squads to be tackled by the game’s authorities.
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It is felt that the Premier League Handbook is too vague on the issue, with players told they must “attend at any reasonable place for the purposes of and to participate in training and match preparation”.
They are also ordered to “maintain a high standard of physical fitness at all times”.
Players signed under Boehly at Chelsea
- Raheem Sterling – £50m
- Kalidou Koulibaly £33m
- Gabriel Slonina – £8m
- Carney Chukweumeka – £20m
- Marc Cucurella – £57.5m
- Cesare Casadei – £13.3m
- Wesley Fofana – £70m
- Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – £10.3m
- Denis Zakaria – £2.7m (Loan fee)
- David Datro Fofana – £10.6m
- Benoit Badiashile – £33.7m
- Andrey Santos – £11.1m
- Joao Felix – £9.7m (Loan fee)
- Mykhailo Mudryk – £62m
- Noni Madueke – £30m
- Malo Gusto – £26.75m
- Enzo Fernandez – £107.8m
- Christopher Nkunku – £52m
- Diego Moreira – FREE
- Nicolas Jackson – £31.5m
- Angelo Gabriel – £13m
- Lesley Ugochukwu – £23.3m
- Axel Disasi – £38.9m
- Robert Sanchez – £20m
- Moises Caicedo – £115m
- Romeo Lavia – £53.2m
- Deivid Washington – £13.7m
- Cole Palmer – £40.1m
- Djordje Petrovic – £13.6m
- Tosin Adarabioyo – FREE
- Marc Guiu – £5.1m
- Caleb Wiley – £8.63m
- Renato Veiga – £12m
- Aarón Anselmino – £14m
- Omari Kellyman – £19.2m
- Filip Jorgensen – £21m
- Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall – £30.2m
- Pedro Neto – £51m
- Joao Felix – £42.6m
- Mike Penders – £17m
The PFA’s reported stance comes just days after Gary Neville blasted Chelsea’s treatment of their own players.
He wrote in his latest newsletter for The Overlap: “Let’s start with what is good about Chelsea: the collection of players.
“Despite the defeat against Manchester City, I’m seeing a group that can make the top four on paper.
“If you have a front three of Neto, Joao Felix and Cole Palmer, a midfield of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, plus their back four and depth in the squad, you’re in a position most clubs would envy. The challenge is moulding them into a team that can do it.
“However, we can quickly get to the bad. Clearlake have spent £1.1bn since taking over and they still haven’t signed a centre forward who you would regard as a top-class assured starter in the Premier League. (I really like Nicolas Jackson but I don’t think he’s that yet).
Where will they get changed? Jamie Carragher's huge Chelsea rant
PREMIER LEAGUE legend Jamie Carragher let rip at Chelsea's transfer market activity, going on an epic rant about the west Londoners…
He told Sky Sports: “Chelsea have just got to stop buying players and players have got to stop signing for Chelsea.
“If I was a player and look at Chelsea, why would you sign?
“The only reason you’d sign is because someone might say – your agent might say – ‘We’re getting a seven-year deal’.
“You know what I’d say? ‘Back yourself as a player, sign a four-year deal at a proper club and back yourself to do well’.
“And then when you’re due for renewal your money goes up anyway.
“I don’t understand why you’d sign a seven-year deal. Back yourself.”
He continued: “All players need competition. But every team I played in there were seven or eight players who knew they were playing every week.
“Then you’ve got six or seven players who are fighting for three positions, and then you’ve got another six players who know they are squad players.”
And of the Blues’ swollen array of talent, Carragher asked: “Where are they going to fit in the changing room?
“How are you going to put on a training session.”
“You’ve six goalkeepers, but not one I would really trust. You have 42 players in the squad but a manager who has just said this week that he will only be working with 21 of them.
“Good luck moving onto the other 21. And good luck motivating them for the rest of the season if you can’t move them on.”
Chelsea have already sold five first-team players this summer, most recently academy graduate Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid.
There could still be more before the window closes, with United joined by Crystal Palace and Aston Villa in being linked with Sterling.
Meanwhile, the Blues have also launched a late move to sign England striker Ivan Toney from Brentford.
If successful, he would become their 13th addition of the summer window.
Chelsea are a circus - it will be TERRIBLE for football if they win anything, says Troy Deeney
CHELSEA are a circus — aren’t they?, writes Troy Deeney.
But the bigger concern should be if somehow, some way, Todd Boehly’s insane master-plan brings about success this season.
Finish in the top four. Win a trophy like the FA Cup.
He will then turn around and say: “See, it works” and all of a sudden, other clubs will begin considering copying this mad model to try and compete in the Premier League.
Before you know it, there will be a bigger divide between the top clubs and the rest and this country’s top flight will become something we have been fighting against — a Super League.
The smaller sides and promoted teams will be wiped out by the elite and will end up saying, ‘What’s the point?’
Football as we know it will change, and there will be no going back.
As a neutral, you don’t want to wish failure on a club or a regime, but it’s depressing to think about.
We should almost be looking at it in amazement — the owners have come in with this model and they’ve treated it as if they are buying stocks and shares, not players or human beings.
Boehly has wiped away any sense of sentiment or old-school values from that club and the worrying thing is that he doesn’t seem to care.
Does he even like football?
Read Troy Deeney’s hard-hitting opinion on Boehly’s Chelsea shambles in full.
Or check out all of Troy’s columns on SunSport.