Kieran Maguire cites Romelu Lukaku in ‘high-stakes’ Chelsea transfer claim
The ‘high-stakes’ transfer strategy of Chelsea to sign players on long-term contracts can make it hard to offload players in future windows.
That is the opinion of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about Romelu Lukaku’s situation at Stamford Bridge and why long-term contracts could be problematic.
Lukaku has been left out of Mauricio Pochettino’s plans at Chelsea this summer with the Belgian striker wanting to leave the London outfit.
The Blues have agreed to loan him to Roma this season, but struggled to find suitors to buy him on a permanent basis,
Pochettino’s side currently have over 20 players on contracts over five years in length, including new summer signings Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia and Christopher Nkunku among others.
Maguire explains that Chelsea signing players on long-term contracts in recent seasons means that they could be stuck with unwanted players in future windows.
“Chelsea are playing a very high-stakes game in terms of their recruitment policy,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“If the players signed turn out to be stars then Chelsea have the benefit of holding onto those players for a long time and having the option to sell them for market value fees because of the long time remaining on the contract.
“If the players don’t work out, then they end up with the situation they currently have with Romelu Lukaku.
“Chelsea have done well to find a willing club to take Lukaku off their payroll for next season, but he was difficult to offload.“
In other news, Chelsea star Chalobah undergoing Bayern Munich medical as loan-to-buy deal agreed