Kieran Maguire issues ‘£582m’ reveal as Chelsea backed to complete multiple deals
Chelsea are smart to use innovative methods to continue their lucrative stream of youth player sales.
That is the view of finance guru Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the “£582million” the Blues have made in player sales in the last decade.
Speaking to The i last Saturday (22 October), Chelsea youth recruitment chief Jim Fraser revealed that they have signed a five-year deal with AiSCOUT to help recruit amateur youngsters.
The platform allows players who otherwise might have slipped through the cracks to upload footage of them completing skill drills and uses machine learning to evaluate them.
Chelsea’s academy has produced the likes of Reece James, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomoro and Nathan Ake in recent years.
Maguire backed the West Londoners to continue to thrive in this department.
Chelsea have been very successful in recent years in terms of player development,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“You only have to look at the likes of Tomori and Abraham leaving for the club for very high sums. You only need to get on one decent player coming through every few seasons to make a really good trading profit.
“If you look a the likes of Reece James on top of that, then there is scope to make even more money.
“Chelsea are likely to have as many academies as they can, which they are allowed to do under the controversial EPPP terms. This allows them to generate the type of player sale profits that have been very lucrative for them.
“Since 2013, Chelsea have made profits of players of £582m. That exceeds the amount of money that they have generated through the turnstiles in the same period.“
In other news, pundit suggests N’Golo Kante could exit Chelsea after Tottenham transfer report.