Chelsea sign Deivid Washington

[My Blood Is Blue]

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/washington-completes-chelsea-switch

The teenage forward has signed a seven-year contract, with the option of a further year, following a breakout season in South America and follows Angelo Gabriel in joining from Santos.

[My Blood Is Blue]

He looks about 12!

I presume he's going straight out on loan, but it is interesting to see the club going after a decent amount of young Brazilian talent 'straight from the source' rather than spending big once they've made it elsewhere in Europe, although we've tried to do it before without much success.

[Mark Kelly]

18 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

He looks about 12!

I presume he's going straight out on loan, but it is interesting to see the club going after a decent amount of young Brazilian talent 'straight from the source' rather than spending big once they've made it elsewhere in Europe, although we've tried to do it before without much success.

I hope he's good as we're going to try and sell Trevoh now to pay for a gamble on his future 

[Thiago97]

I headed straight to YouTube for a quick look. Jeez he looks raw, not one I would be pinning any future hopes on at this stage. 
From what I watched , he will need some progress over the next 2-3 years to feature here I would think. 

[thevelourfog]

Broken record, but a 7 year deal is absolutely insane.

[chrisb]

31 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

Broken record, but a 7 year deal is absolutely insane.

Looking at how young he looks he’ll probably only be about 14 when it expires.

[ROTG]

5 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

Broken record, but a 7 year deal is absolutely insane.

Are the dynamic duo responsible for signing him or Bath?

[xceleryx]

6 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

Broken record, but a 7 year deal is absolutely insane.

Probably not quite as insane as it looks at face value. 

If you consider 5 years as the standard, after 3 years it's generally when talks about renewals begin. If talks stall or drag out for 12 months, which we have seen happen, then the leverage shifts towards the player as they enter that final year. 

These longer deals kinda remove that awkward window, or at least delay it, which could be useful with players this young as allows for full focus on development and not having to worry about other clubs coming in to poach them away earlier - or at least retains the clubs leverage. 

By the time this 7 year deal ends Washington, in this instance, would be 25. I imagine by that point his long term future here will have been well and truly decided upon. There's risk of course, but I can kinda understand the reasoning behind it a little beyond just FFP measures - which domestically for now still allow amortisation beyond the newly imposed 5 years by UEFA. Unless he's truly inept and on some Ali Dia level, there's the chance of profit at the back end of things. 

But yeah, not seen a lick of Washington myself so will probably watch a few youtube videos and read up to see what's what.

[thevelourfog]

3 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Probably not quite as insane as it looks at face value. 

If you consider 5 years as the standard, after 3 years it's generally when talks about renewals begin. If talks stall or drag out for 12 months, which we have seen happen, then the leverage shifts towards the player as they enter that final year. 

These longer deals kinda remove that awkward window, or at least delay it, which could be useful with players this young as allows for full focus on development and not having to worry about other clubs coming in to poach them away earlier - or at least retains the clubs leverage. 

Fine for one player. Insane when you're saddling the club with a whole squad of huge, long running financial liabilities. 

[xceleryx]

1 hour ago, thevelourfog said:

Fine for one player. Insane when you're saddling the club with a whole squad of huge, long running financial liabilities. 

Maybe, but they're also cost controlled (to a degree) with their salaries. It's not as if we're handing out 7 year deals to players earning £250-300k pw and in their late 20's.

A good portion of the youth being signed are heading out on loans, having their cost subsidised in the process, and will be easy to move on from should they not pan out. There's exceptions like the Mudryk's, Lavia's, Fofana's, and what have you that were signed for the first team directly and came in at higher cost points, but players in the position of Washington, Angelo, and that aren't likely to hamstring us long term. 

Time shall be the ultimate teller though.

[Rob B]

2 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

Fine for one player. Insane when you're saddling the club with a whole squad of huge, long running financial liabilities. 

I was just going to make exactly the same point. 

The owners are gambling and we need to get used to seeing some fan favourites sold.  I’m not talking about Reece James or Colwill necessarily, but your Gallaghers, Maatsens, Broja’s of the world will very likely be needed to balance the books.  We won’t have £250m of Koulibaly, Mendy and the like to shift every year. 

Although I suspect they are banking on transfer fees continuing to increase, so perhaps 75% of these South American type transfers will be flipped to European or Saudi clubs in 3-4 years for at least a net amount.

Its not a crazy plan by any means but definitely does carry financial risk. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Rob B

[johnnybozo]

On 24/08/2023 at 15:18, My Blood Is Blue said:

He looks about 12!

I presume he's going straight out on loan, but it is interesting to see the club going after a decent amount of young Brazilian talent 'straight from the source' rather than spending big once they've made it elsewhere in Europe, although we've tried to do it before without much success.

If anything, it means that if they don't fulfil their potential with us we can sell on at a profit.

But yes buying players like Caicedo, Cucurella, Enzo etc at ridiculous fees when they've been discovered a season before by other clubs leaves a sour taste. Would much rather this method of buy early and send on the Strasbourg express.