Chelsea’s Under 25s Transfer Policy - Justifiable or Foolish?

Could it be a long-term master plan or will it be an issue for years to come?

Since the Todd Boehly and Clearlake consortium took over the club in May 2022, there has been a shift in our squad that has never been seen before in world football. It’s completely unrecognisable from the squad he inherited. The majority of the players we’ve brought in are extremely young, and that has caused numerous debates within the Chelsea fanbase, the media and you’d imagine within the club's hierarchy. 

It’s been widely reported that Chelsea refused to sign anyone over the age of 25 in the summer transfer window just gone, in a move that the majority of the fanbase finds bizarre, especially with Mauricio Pochettino saying on record that he wants Premier-League-proven and experienced players. 

The lack of experience (especially in front of goal) is seriously hurting us at the minute, but it’s not a cause for panic just yet. All the data points to us being a much better side than the points tally shows, Poch knows that and so does the hierarchy. Chelsea and Manchester City are the only sides unbeaten on xG this year. Admittedly xG doesn’t show the whole picture, but it’s a pretty good indicator to where we should be when things start clicking in front of goal.

There is some logic as to why Chelsea are using this never-seen-before strategy, but this plan is clearly going to affect our season, until at least January. 

With Chelsea not signing under 25s in the summer, here’s a list of players who ended up becoming Chelsea legends that would’ve been snubbed by the current ownership: 

• Didier Drogba

• Thiago Silva

• N’Golo Kante

• Ashley Cole

• Michael Ballack

• Gianfranco Zola

• Ricardo Carvalho

• Claude Makelele

• Cesc Fabregas

• Diego Costa

• Ruud Gullit

• Gianluca Vialli

• Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink

• Nicholas Anelka

• Florent Malouda

• Gary Cahill

That list includes many of Chelsea’s greatest-ever players, and also some cult heroes that will have shocked us with how much of an impact they had. It’s interesting that none of these players would’ve been signed with this current strategy and currently, players on the market that could’ve had an impact like those on this list would be flat-out ignored.

However, all of the players listed above came into sides that were either settled/experienced or had won silverware previously. Chelsea’s most recent silverware came in the form of the Club World Cup and we all know that the side that won that cup was not a side to build around. It was a team that was massively overperforming under Thomas Tuchel, had old players on the decline, and transfer mistakes littered everywhere. Our current side has only a handful of players who have won silverware so we are having to build from the ground up.

That squad that won our last trophy included the likes of Kepa, Sarr, Kenedy, Saul, Werner, Lukaku, and Ziyech and we were all happy when these players moved on. That squad needed to be gutted, and that’s exactly what the new owners have done and they’ve done it in record time. The club clearly wanted to spend January and the summer building a young core, and to be fair to them, they’ve delivered us a lot of the world's best talent. Now, why did they ignore Pochettino’s cries for Premier League experience?

They didn’t get him the experience that he wanted as they wanted to establish the young core of the squad first, however, they made sure to deliver him young players who had at least played Premier League football before and knew the league. You have to pay a premium for players like this but they (in theory) won’t take time to adapt to the pace of the league. 

The owners secured Poch players like Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer and Robert Sanchez. Whilst these players haven’t played hundreds of games each in the league, they at least know the demands of the league both mentally and physically. Adding them to a squad that boasts players like Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva, Conor Gallagher, Raheem Sterling and even Levi Colwill, we have a decent amount of Premier League experience for such a young squad. We need more experience, and it sounds obvious, but the more we play these young players, the more the need for Premier League experience fades.

Whilst a fair few have experience in England’s top flight, they are all still very young so that’s a concern of fans and Pochettino that I do share. However, SPTC Sources tell us that this U25 rule is not active anymore and it was solely to build a young core this summer. 

This means that this young squad (who are only going to get better) will only be added to if the perfect players are available. The perfect player to add to the side right now would be an experienced number 9, one who’s Premier League proven and also about to hit their prime years. A certain Ivan Toney springs to mind, and we know that Chelsea have a huge interest in him. Another player to keep an eye on will surely be Victor Osimhen, who himself is involved in a legal battle with Napoli after they posted some disgraceful TikToks about their talisman, so he may be looking to move on.

If this under-25s rule was a permanent fixture, then I’d have been massively concerned about our future, but knowing that it was just a temporary stance actually fills me with more confidence. We have all the tools and foundations, and now we will add only the best of the best to it. The (hopefully) likely arrival of a top-class number 9 in January will elevate us to a top-level side. All the data that proves we’re so much better than our results say is clear to see and we’re closer to being ‘back’ than people think. A few top additions that are the finishing pieces of the squad are still needed, but I back the club not to let us down. 

We all would’ve liked more experience in the summer but I understand why we didn’t do so. The owners are far from perfect, but I still back their plan to get us back to the top. It’s difficult to keep the faith and I do think we may have a few more torrid months ahead, but we’ll be back… we’re Chelsea Football Club. 

By Will Reyner