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Chelsea have
begun a clear-out of their underperforming youth ranks as the club
attempt to refocus their academy recruitment efforts on young
English talent. A large group of players caught in limbo between
Luiz Felipe Scolari's senior squad and Chelsea's under-18 team have
been made available for transfer or loan - with the club offering
to subsidise their unusually high wages in some cases.
Having not played on loan to Portsmouth, Israel striker Ben
Sahar has been moved to Dutch Eredivisie strugglers De Graafschap.
Danish forward Morten Nielsen - whose father Benny was employed by
the club as a scout - is close to joining Saint-Etienne on loan.
Italian centre-back Vincenzo Camilleri may return to Reggina, while
Portugal youth internationals Fábio Ferreira and Ricardo Fernandes
have rejected transfers to Italy and Spain, despite Chelsea
offering to pay off the remaining six months of their contracts in
full. The futures of a number of English players on loan at
lower-division clubs are also under consideration.
Signed before Frank Arnesen's multi-million-pound appointment as
chief scout and director of youth development, Ferreira and
Fernandes are at the low end of the wage scale at £85,000 a year.
Many of Arnesen's recruits take home more than £150,000.
Embarrassingly, the Dane has spent much of his recent time
attempting to move his lauded signings on. His failure to establish
"the best youth development programme in the world" and produce a
player a season for the first team, coupled with comments made
about Roman Abramovich's straitened finances, have angered the
owner and have led to Arnesen losing influence at Stamford
Bridge.
Chelsea officials say the departures of certain youth players is
a natural part of the academy assessment process, unconnected with
efforts to economise. The club currently have 20 England youth
internationals between the ages of 15 and 18, but are seeking to
increase that number.
Scolari, meanwhile, has moved to assert his authority over the
senior squad by handing out a list outlining a range of penalties
to be exacted for ill-discipline. The punishments include fines of
several hundred pounds for every minute a player is late for
training or club travel, several thousand pounds for leaving the
country without permission and others for breaching the dress code
by wearing hats.
