Chelsea’s spending under Todd Boehly seemingly has no limits. As Todd’s transfer totaliser ticks towards the £400m mark, Graham Potter’s squad becomes increasingly bloated. But his new signings are also being tied down to huge and lengthy contracts.
Mykhaylo Mudryk, who joined from Shakhtar Donetsk for an initial £63m, has signed a contract that runs until the summer of 2030 - with an option to extend by a further 12 months. The Ukrainian is only 22, and if everything goes perfectly at Stamford Bridge, this contract will last until he is 30!
It’s a remarkable deal on the face of things, reportedly worth £100k a week, double what Arsenal were willing to pay him. Meanwhile this month, the Blues also signed David Datro Fofana, a 20-year-old from Molde, on a seven-year deal that runs until the summer of 2029.
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Clearly the club is trying to protect their investments in the long-term and avoid the modern phenomenon of top class players running down their contracts and leaving on a free. But it also presents a huge risk. Chelsea are hardly known for signing gems, and to commit to paying big wages on contracts that are going to last for the next decade, it represents a huge financial outlay for the club.
Also, and this is a key point, these players are completely unproven. They may turn out to be world beaters and this could look like a sensational piece of business in the future, but it could also backfire on them. If Mudryk is a flop, nobody is going to want to take him off Chelsea’s hands, and he is unlikely to leave, given the handsome contract he has been tied down to. The same goes for Fofana, who will be earning money beyond his wildest dreams when he was at Molde.
It’s a very American way of dealing with signings. In sports such as the NFL, contracts are long as players can be used as bargaining chips in trade deals while the new team takes on their contracts as part of the deal. It is something Boehly is probably well accustomed to but does it translate to football in the same way?
Looking at the longest contracts handed out in the sport’s history, it is difficult to judge. When Lionel Messi had broken into the Barcelona team at the age of 18, he was handed a nine-year deal to keep him at the Camp Nou. It was a big one, but with that level of talent staring them straight in the face, it was sensible from Barcelona.
In 2017, Saul Niguez signed a nine-year deal at Atletico Madrid to deter any potential suitors and keep him at the club until 2026. It looked like it had worked up until last term, when he lost his place in the team and was loaned to Chelsea. However, this season, he has got his way back into Diego Simeone’s plans and is looking like a useful midfielder again. Was he worth tying down to a nine-year deal? Possibly not.
In 2019, Athletic Bilbao shocked the world by tying Inaki Williams down to a deal until 2028, with a £125m release clause. He’s still at the club, so it has worked in a way, and he’s scored five goals in 17 La Liga games this term. Usually, it’s the selling club putting a high value on their main assets, but Chelsea are tying down unproven youngsters rather than top level players.
Famously Denilson signed a ten-year contract with Real Betis after the 1998 World Cup, as he became the world’s most expensive player. He even cost more than Ronaldo when he moved from Barcelona to Inter Milan the previous season. However, it was a disaster. By 2000 he was loaned to Flamengo as the club were relegated.
He would stay at Betis until 2005, but by the end of his time there, he was nothing more than a fringe player, making three appearances in his final season. Moves to Bordeaux, Al Nassr and FC Dallas followed for the wonderkid who never lived up to his potential.
It seems as though, unless you have a proven asset, long contracts are more harm than they are worth. More importantly, if it was the right thing to do, why isn’t the norm for all of Europe’s big clubs? Five-year deals protect a club’s investment and also allow them to negotiate further down the line, whereas seven or eight year deals seem far too risky.
Chelsea transfer business under Boehly has been poor so far. The club sit 10th in the Premier League, are wasting far too much in every window and seemingly have no strategy on who they want to attract. The long-term deals for young players may not be their main worry right now, but it could come back to haunt them in a few years time.
