Pundit claims Chelsea have downgraded with £55m trade in attack | OneFootball

Chelsea’s player trading model is still hard to get your head around.

At first it just felt like the new owners were clearing out the old stock and making the place their own.

The first three windows they were here were so busy, it felt unsustainable.

But things haven’t really slowed down. In fact they’re now into the stage of selling off the players they bought in their first wave. It goes against traditional football logic to be constantly moving players around – but it does make sense on the balance sheet.

Chelsea trade Madueke and Gittens

Jamie Gittens moves down the flank for Chelsea.

This summer has a perfect example – Noni Madueke, bought two and a half years ago and becoming an important player, is sold off and replaced by £55m Jamie Gittens.

They’re both a similar age, a level, a similar position. Why change the one that’s comfortable and established for someone who will have to start that process all over again?

Put simply, the answer is profit. Put slightly less simply, the answer is amortised book value.

Pundit backs Madueke to have higher ceiling than Gittens

But how does it work in a football way? Danny Murphy had his say on TalkSport:

“It will be interesting with Gittens to see how he does. They paid the same money for him as they got for Madueke. My gut feeling is that Madueke has probably got a bit more. He might prove me wrong; we’ll have to wait and see.”

So he’s laid his cards down. We’ve seen some exciting flashes of Gittens and we have to admit that we always felt we could improve on Madueke. But as so often in football, the players you see up close always seem more flawed than the latest exciting transfer target.

It’s an interesting plotline to follow through this season and beyond.