Nothing new I know, but what is the point in them having a player like Lewis Baker on their books. He's been there since he was 10, and by the end of the season he will be 27. His one and only Chelsea appearance (as an 87th minute sub in an FA Cup game) came almost 8 years ago. He's been out on loan 10 times to 7 different clubs in 4 different countries. He is currently in the Chelsea u23s, bolstering their pursuit for Papa John's Trophy glory. What is the point of them still having him on their books? He's never going to get anywhere near the first team, and they haven't got an initial outlay to try and recoup. I understand from a business perspective, that they regularly buy young players, and sell them on a few years later for a profit. But this mass hoarding of players and holding onto them for years and years, doesn't make much sense to me.
Very pointless . I'm quite sure Lewis wouldn't complain though as it seems he's been on on easy St quite a while. Nice work if you can get it , fair play to him
It's not fair to the player, or other teams. However, he should've requested a transfer / to be released, if he wanted real football.
Agree it's beyond daft. It's sort of similar to a goalkeeper that is a perennial no 2 or 3, and only that. I guess he sees it in terms of the money he's made, and is making as a Chelsea player and doesn't really care about his ability or "what could have been"? For Chelsea they get to have another name on the books that was born in England/trained in England for quotas and that.
Agree with this. Bet you they're paying him more than he'd get at a club where he'd get into the team though, or at least close to that and he is having to do little to earn it and/or risk his career. I don't criticise him, but it's clubs like Chelsea, Man City, Newcastle now being in this position that makes me feel following Barnsley is more and more futile. We just make up the numbers. The sooner they **** off and form a Super League the better.
He’s probably happy, gets loan spells where he pretty much has to play or the club have to pay more of his wages but he can still continue to say he’s a Chelsea player. I regularly listen under the cosh & it seems with most players that they all start off with a huge love of the game & just want to play games but it ends up been about money & making moves solely influenced by money. They seem to lose their love of the game. So many times I’ve heard ‘I was happy there but I got a better contract here & then I ended up not playing as the manager didn’t rate me / I had a fall out with him’. It’s a tough one with the playing / money balance but it’s sad when players have all the talent in the world but they’re not even finishing with 200 career appearances as they’re just happy picking up a huge wage & living the footballer life.
It's coming down then. I'm sure when we had Ike Ugbo on loan from them, he was one of about 60 players out on loan.
They won’t have put a gun to his head when the contract was in front of him. The second string at Chelsea will be getting paid a lot more than they’d realistically get elsewhere. It’s daft and Chelsea seem to be the worst for it. Look at Michy Batshuayi, Leya Iseka’s brother, he was out of contract last summer and could’ve gone somewhere else for free. Instead he signs a new two-year (I think) deal and goes off on loan to Turkey. He’s 28 years old. On a positive note, a lot of Chelsea’s home-grown players look like they’re realising their chances will be limited and are leaving. Livramento left for Southampton and has nailed down his place in the first team, Bate left for Leeds and a few of the others turned down Chelsea’s offers and went elsewhere.
Pretty sure I saw an article last season about Chelsea’s longest serving player leaving them, without ever making an appearance for Chelsea.
