Leicester City, Aston Villa and Newcastle United have been locked in transfer negotiations over the past few days, prepared to listen to offers for their star players to avoid a sanction for breaching profit and sustainability rules – yet Chelsea, while not quite on their own, have been able to carry on buying.
There were reports that Newcastle were prepared to let Anthony Gordon go to Liverpool and they have given the green light for homegrown favourite Elliot Anderson to head to Nottingham Forest. Villa have sold ace midfielder Douglas Luiz to Juventus for £42.35 million despite qualifying for the Champions League.
And Leicester are ready to wave goodbye to Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, one of the driving forces behind promotion back to the Premier League, despite landing back into the top flight riches. Chelsea have agreed a £30m deal.
A striker remains on their agenda and there have been links with Newcastle’s Alexander Isak, who would apparently cost more than £115m, Villa’s Jhon Duran and Atletico Madrid’s Samu Omorodion are also under consideration.
football.london admits that some supporters might see Chelsea owner Todd Boehly exploiting a PSR loophole by funding these purchases through the sales of youth graduates like Ian Maatsen to Villa or Michael Golding to Leicester, if that one gets over the line.
It writes: “Chelsea are one of multiple Premier League clubs that have essentially formed a mini-group to help each other with their financial troubles. (As well as Maatsen and Kelly swapping clubs), Everton sold Lewis Dobbin to Villa for £9m about 24 hours after Tim Iroegbunam swapped Villa Park for Goodison Park for a similar fee. While many have called some of these dealings ‘dodgy’, officially no rules have been broken by the involved clubs.
“PSR was introduced to try and help financial stability among the 20 Premier League clubs – and for them not to go beyond their means in the transfer market. A club is not allowed to lose over £105million across a three-year
“When a club sells a player, the money they receive as part of the transfer fee goes into the accounts for that particular year. If it is an academy product, such is the case with Chelsea and Aston Villa-bound Maatsen, then the money coming the Blues’ way will account as ‘pure profit’.
“Meanwhile, from Villa’s point of view, the £37.5million they are spending on Maatsen will be amortised over a five-year period. That equates to just a £7.5million loss per-year on their accounts, so it really does mutually benefit both clubs. It is undoubtedly a loophole to try to combat the PSR guidelines. It is a loophole that has been frowned upon, but one that is not officially breaking the rules.”
It is a spree that could give Leicester the £40m or so needed to avoid further PSR charges but a penny, or £105m over a three-year rolling period, for the thoughts of Steve Cooper as he looks at the squad, and particularly the midfield, he has inherited after this mini transfer deadline day has been and gone.
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