Exclusive says “genuine concern” already at Chelsea over £50m summer transfer deal | OneFootball

Mark Brus has an exclusive for CaughtOffside’s Daily Briefing today which has some worrying parts, for us.

He wrote about the Noni Madueke deal after the winger switched Chelsea for Arsenal in the summer for more than £50m.

Internal concerns about Chelsea’s Madueke decision

Noni Madueke completes Arsenal move.

While lots of fans were happy to shift him, his replacements have yet to reach his level, and it seems there may be doubts about the deal internally at the club, as well as in the fanbase.

“I can now also reveal that there was some genuine concern inside Chelsea about letting Madueke go when his underlying numbers were so promising, and with the player now another year older and more experienced.”

“Checking in with multiple sources in the industry today, they all confirmed that key figures in the recruitment team made their case at the time that selling Madueke was a “risky” call and one that could come back to haunt them.”

Yet the Blues still went ahead, looking at the tasty margin they had on a player signed for less than £25m two and a half years ago.

Chelsea’s satisfaction with deal is worrying sign

But there’s another side to it:

“Sources close to Chelsea deny this, and will point to the fact that they have a model based on buying talented young players like Madueke before selling for a profit. To offload Madueke for over double what they paid for him after two and a half patchy seasons is seen by the Blues as great business.”

That’s kind of the problem, however. It’s fair enough if Chelsea sell Madueke and use the money to buy a better player. But to be happy just that you made a profit on him isn’t enough, and points towards a club which is trying to focus on profit over points.