Do people just randomly forget that some clubs used to be owned by banks and that’s how they are where they are today?
I’m not going to be an hypocrite and say Chelsea doesn’t have a role to play in the current state of football but if it wasn’t Chelsea it was going to be another club.
Current state of football was inevitable. It was going to happen regardless.
Brits invent football and have been whining about it ever since.
This is the definitive slogan of /r/soccer
Bayer Leverkusen were founded by Bayer, the pharmaceutical company that produced chemical weapons for the Nazis during WWII. Bayern Munich used the swastika as their badge. PSG and Manchester City are oil clubs that actively cheat their books to be able to spend more. I don’t get what we’re doing here trying to paint Chelsea’s spending as some new wave ruining football.
These people who say “football is gone” frankly do not know what they’re talking about. Inflation (both within and outside the sport) has changed the landscape but there has always been stupid money and bad people within the sport.
The complainers are just nostalgic for the times before they knew and understood how bad it is. Picking any one club to vilify is foolish. It’s an arms race.
and the funny thing is that a major portion of redditors are actually american
Are you really using Nazi Germany for an example as to why Chelsea aren’t “the only ones ruining football”?
So you think the UK should have had rules that prevented anyone from owning a club if they had any connections to someone who “wasn’t a good person”?
It’s not even rational to discriminate against someone that was in the KGB, because that just means they were public servants working to protect their country.
No, he’s using Nazi Germany as an example of how football has been corrupted by less than benevolent interests for a very long time.
I mean yeah I get it, but that’s leaving out a relevant historical context as to why those things happened.
I agree that Chelsea should not be seen as “where things gone wrong”, but pointing out to Nazi Germany to say things have always been wrong just seems whataboutism with a really low bar
Just feel like he’s going to a more extreme level
I don’t get what we’re doing here trying to paint Chelsea’s spending as some new wave ruining football.
Exactly!
This isn’t even the first time Chelsea’s spending ruined football!
I think people are nitpicking this article a bit. Saying Chelsea are poster boys for whats wrong with football today is a reasonable take. Sure, they could have said Newcastle or PSG or Man City, but the person is expressing an opinion and it’s not a bad one, certainly not as bad as people in this comment section are making it out to be.
People don’t read articles here, or anywhere on reddit tbh. One of my professors has his tests just be like from the first 3 pages of each textbook chapter, and people still don’t read it. It’s like 5 minutes of work lol.
Cleaned through billions of money in Chelsea.
Did he? He lost money all throughout his ownership and last I heard still didn’t have access to the sale proceeds. Plus rumor is he wasn’t even allowed within the country for the last few years.
I don’t think Roman “sportswashed” because I don’t think he was trying to clean up his public persona, but instead wanted to have assets outside of Putin’s control in case things went bad. And at least to date that plan backfired.
The hate for Saudis and American’s is 100% warranted
Juxtaposing those two together is completely unreasonable. Whataboutism and sports washing in action.
Boehly and Chelsea’s transfers have been absurd, the Glazers are leeching money out of ManU, but the rest have been more or less the same as any other group of owners?
Arsenal is at a high point they haven’t been at for a while, and Liverpool had an incredible run of success under FSG. I also think ownership at Villa, Palace, Fulham, Leeds, and West Ham has been fine? As a whole I don’t think those owners are any better or worse than those at Spurs, Wolves, or Brighton.
Let’s be realistic, where would all that money Chelsea spent on players go if they didn’t spend it? To the fans? To the community? No. It would still be in the bank account of a billionaire. If they want to splash £100m on a single player from a club deemed smaller, then I don’t see the issue. A club like Brighton can easily spend that £100m on a decent replacement and then some. Also doesn’t guarantee Chelsea trophies and doesn’t wreck a club like Brighton. Brighton also seem to spend that £100m on obscure but high potential players from much smaller clubs abroad, which helps those clubs.
You’re not allowed to mention that, Milan fans will get pissy and defensive
He was an ex kgb agent surely they would have known he wasn’t a good person yet.
Barca literally sold their future income and merchandise rights for quick money. The gambled on short term success.
Malaga
Racing de Santander
Deportivo La Coruña
paying ridiculous amounts with money loaned from banks.
That’s how most of these transfers are paid though. It’s particularly obvious with release clauses.
Clubs offer better value for transfer with a significant amount upfront. The buying club hasn’t got that money but the interest they pay will be lower than the premium the selling club wants for more installments. Take out a loan and it’s ok. Clubs are fairly low risk in terms of lending. Even a club massively in debt will almost always pay their loans eventually.
This is true. What my point was no loan has ever been taken to pay wages. As far as I am aware. I would be open to stand corrected with valid sources though.
Neither me or the person I responded to mentioned loans to pay wages. Did you mean to respond to someone else?
Ohh yeah, sorry. I am at work and saw wages pop up in some comments, and replied as per that. But I do agree, loans are taken to pay for transfer fees. It’s standard for every major transfer irrespective of the club.
No worries
People don’t read articles here, or anywhere on reddit tbh. One of my professors has his tests just be like from the first 3 pages of each textbook chapter, and people still don’t read it. It’s like 5 minutes of work lol.
Neither me or the person I responded to mentioned loans to pay wages. Did you mean to respond to someone else?
Ohh yeah, sorry. I am at work and saw wages pop up in some comments, and replied as per that. But I do agree, loans are taken to pay for transfer fees. It’s standard for every major transfer irrespective of the club.
No worries
And what was the Chelsea Loan Army beyond a “farm” system? It’s the same thing lol
*Man City
No, Chelsea is the proof of football going right. Thinking they could buy quick success and end up in failures.
City are the true poster boys for where football has gone wrong.
I love how local and lower level football really does answer nearly all of everyone’s concerns but they’d rather pretend the Prem was the only football league on Earth and they’re forced to put up with it. Absolutely self-inflicted.
The thing is the drop in talent and quality is significant. People want to watch the best players and teams playing at an elite level
Eh, high quality football is also “””boring””” and data driven. So many cool football moves are as good as outlawed. You don’t need to look further than classic nr. 10 being a dying breed, replaced by players best described as ‘pressing machines’.
Much bigger problem/reason is that lower leagues aren’t media talking points(let’s face it, sports are men’s reality TV shows), finding a broadcast is hard, etc. It’s just much harder to get into if you aren’t local.
The Championship is a superb league. The quality might not be as good in terms of talent compared to the PL, but it is far more entertaining.
Defending American billionaires lol. Why do we do this lol, we are such capitalist dickriders
Don’t worry, I think football was ruined well before Abramovich.
I just want to see fun competition. Eredivisie is high enough a level for me.
I do recognize I’m in the minority, though.
Couldn’t agree more
The Championship is a superb league. The quality might not be as good in terms of talent compared to the PL, but it is far more entertaining.
No Chelsea are the most recent trailblazers who’ve been overtaken by the poster boys
The poster boys are City, PSG and Newcastle