Chelsea sporting directors Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have hit back at “misconceptions” surrounding the club selling their academy graduates.
The Blues have regularly been accused of using the sales of academy graduates in order to balance their PSR numbers during a period of heavy recruitment of new players. In total, the club have forked out more than £1bn to rebuild their squad from 2022, avoiding PSR sanctions by selling the likes of Conor Gallagher and Mason Mount over the past two years, with two sales of graduates from academy generating £93 million in total profit.
The sale of the former to Atlético de Madrid during the summer transfer window caused a lot of anger Chelsea fans, with the midfielder having regularly captained the team throughout the 2023/24 campaign.
Speaking about the decision to sell academy graduates in an interview with The Telegraphthe club’s sporting directors defended the moves made.
“We had a big offer for one of our academy products this summer which we absolutely decided not to accept,” Winstanley revealed as he responded to suggestions Chelsea were looking to cash in on local talent. “There are a lot of misconceptions out there.
“We’ve had two debuts this year. At the back there are three or four other players who we think can push forward this year as well and we’re looking forward to it. The coach agrees with that, he’s aware of the players coming We give them opportunities when we can to make sure they have that path.
“It’s not just about PSR, it’s about contractual statuses, it’s circumstances. The two players you referred to, there were contractual issues that we got into. It’s very important for us to bring in players.”
Stewart also discussed Chelsea’s equally controversial decision to hand players incredibly long contracts, with Cole Palmer tied down for nine years and Moises Cacideo for a further eight. The sporting director has explained that long contracts are part of the club’s “long-term” aspirations.
“This is a club that needs to be in the Champions League, it’s a club that needs to be competing to win trophies consistently and we want to do that as well with a certain way of playing football,” he said. “So that is absolutely the ambition.
“And then the plan has been how do we go about making that happen. And that’s been investing in talent, committing to developing talent and developing a way to play, the way we want our teams to play.
“One of the messages that the owners gave us from the beginning is that this is not about a short-term win or a short-term project, but about long-term success and that has been one of the driving factors All the decisions we’ve made, absolutely, the idea is to try to make the club successful in the long term.”
The Blues have started the 2024/25 season on a positive note and currently sit in fourth place after winning four of their opening seven Premier League games.
