Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has urged the Premier League to revise their financial regulations to safeguard academy players.
In recent times, there has been a flurry of uncommon transfers among top-flight clubs as they try to avoid breaching the Profit and Sustainability rules of the league. Clubs like Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle United, Everton, and Nottingham Forest have engaged in separate deals to stay within the regulations.
The spotlight is currently on Chelsea due to their willingness to sell homegrown talent Conor Gallagher, who performed admirably as captain during the 2023-24 season. Despite offering Gallagher a new contract, co-owners Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital seem more focused on protecting his value and making a profit of £33m.
Maresca wants to see a return of the “one-club men” era at Chelsea. He defended the club’s transfer strategy during a press conference before the friendly against Real Madrid, stating, “This is not Chelsea’s problem, these are the rules. All the clubs at this moment are compelled to sell players from the academy because of the rules. It’s all of the Premier League clubs’ problems.”
He added, “I also think the intention of the club is not to sell players from the academy but it is the rules at the end that you have to do it. It’s not only us, it’s all the Premier League clubs. It’s a shame because in Italy, we have (Francesco) Totti with Roma, 20 years with the same club. One-club-man; we love that in football, the fans want to see that. But with the rules now it is different than the past.”
Chelsea, under Boehly and Clearlake, have spent significantly on foreign youngsters, leading to the inevitable sale of academy graduates like Trevoh Chalobah and Armando Broja. While no concrete offers have been made for Chalobah and Broja, it is expected that they might leave by the end of the summer transfer window.
The club is on the brink of selling Gallagher to Atletico Madrid and bringing in Samu Omorodion from the same club in a separate deal. The cycle of selling academy players to fund foreign talent seems to be a trend across Premier League clubs, a situation Maresca hopes will change with revised financial regulations.
