Kieran Maguire reveals what he really thinks about Chelsea and PiF ‘getting into bed together’
Chelsea have been ‘excellent’ at generating money from transfers in the last decade so their sales to Saudi Arabia this summer are ‘logical’.
That is the view of finance expert Kieran Maguire, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the links between Chelsea’s ownership and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
The Blues are set to make a number of player sales to Saudi Arabian clubs this summer, with N’Golo Kante and Kalidou Koulibaly already completing moves while Edouard Mendy and Hakim Ziyech are also closing in on transfers to the nation.
The links between the two parties has caused controversy due to PIF owning a stake in Clearlake – the company that owns a majority stake in Chelsea.
Maguire called for Chelsea to provide clarity on the situation but described the links between the two parties as ‘tenuous’.
“I think the links are quite tenuous,” Maguire told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.
“It would be good to have some form of clarity coming from Chelsea with regards to the ownership and the links to PIF.
“But if PIF own one per cent of Clearlake Capital, as has been suggested in some quarters, then I really think this is sort of making a mountain out of a mole hill.
“The Saudi domestic market is very frothy and to be fair to Chelsea, they took advantage of the Chinese Super League a few years ago and got really excellent prices for the likes of Ramirez and Oscar.
“I think that they’re just going to repeat this here.
“They’ve got players who clearly are part of a bloated squad so things need to be trimmed down.
“From the players’ point of view, it’s an opportunity to get very lucrative contracts.
“For all the criticism that’s levelled at Chelsea, they have been excellent at generating money from player sales over the last decade.
“Chelsea are in a selling position so it is logical that the two parties are getting into bed together.“
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