Chelsea have axed nearly two-thirds of their
international scouting staff in the first sign that billionaire
owner Roman Abramovich may be losing patience with his club's
towering levels of debt - including the £578 million that is owed
to him.
In all, 15 of Chelsea's 25-strong global scouting network were
made redundant on Friday, including former German international
Rainer Bonhoff and others earning up to £100,000 a year.
At the same time, manager Luiz Felipe Scolari, whose team
trounced Sunderland 5-0 yesterday, has been told that he cannot
spend money in the transfer window in January because of the credit
crunch, evidence that even the biggest-spending club in the world
are having to rein in their budget.
Even before the current squeeze, Chelsea chief executive Peter
Kenyon had insisted that Abramovich's aim was to balance Chelsea's
books by 2010, an ambition that looks increasingly unlikely to be
met. The club announced losses of £74m earlier this year and are
carrying £736m of debt.
Sacking the scouts will only scratch the surface of that figure
but the move still represents a major change of strategy by the
club, who appointed Frank Arnesen as chief scout and director of
youth development in 2005.
A Chelsea spokesman confirmed the redundancies, adding: 'We are
restructuring our scouting network in order to re-focus priorities
on key targets and in key territories.'
Scolari appears relaxed about the new financial constraints. He
said: 'It's not (just) Chelsea who are not spending money. I think
all the clubs in the world will not spend as much as they spent
before.
'The situation in the world is different to six months ago. The
players need to be thinking about this and the clubs need to be
thinking about this.' The Brazilian insists that he needs new
players after missing out on Robinho to Manchester City in August
but is prepared to sell in order to buy.
He said: 'In football sometimes you don't need money to make a
good change. I'm happy with the way Chelsea are thinking, which is
different than before.'
Abramovich, whose personal fortune is estimated at more than
£11billion, was reported to have lost £12m in last month's collapse
of financial markets, mainly related to his ownership of the steel
company, Evraz Group.
A spokesman for Abramovich has disputed the figure, saying that
it represented only a 'paper loss' of share values.
