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We have been waiting some time to witness Chelsea‘s bewildering new transfer strategy yield some semblance of success, but, all of a sudden, it has started to bear fruit. Fresh from their incredibly young squad claiming a second trophy in as many months, the Blues are set to make a cool profit on one of their expendable wantaways.
Noni Madueke is set to complete a costly £52 million ($70m) transfer across the English capital to fierce rivals Arsenal and the imminent deal means Chelsea stand to gain more than £20m ($27m) – despite the winger largely flattering to deceive since arriving from PSV for £30.5m ($41m) in January 2023.
This is the new master plan in action, and with tangible success finally being delivered on the pitch, the club’s hierarchy will believe that their often baffling approach to the transfer market is now paying off…
We have been waiting some time to witness Chelsea’s bewildering new transfer strategy yield some semblance of success, but, all of a sudden, it has started to bear fruit. Fresh from their incredibly young squad claiming a second trophy in as many months, the Blues are set to make a cool profit on one of their expendable wantaways.
Noni Madueke is set to complete a costly £52 million ($70m) transfer across the English capital to fierce rivals Arsenal, and the imminent deal means Chelsea stand to gain more than £20m ($27m) – despite the winger largely flattering to deceive since arriving from PSV for £30.5m ($41m) in January 2023.
This is the new master plan in action, and with tangible success finally being delivered on the pitch, the club’s hierarchy will believe that their often baffling approach to the transfer market is now paying off…
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The truth is that few Chelsea fans will bat an eyelid at the news of Madueke’s imminent departure. It will irk some that he is joining a fierce London rival, but the reality is that he has been far too inconsistent for anyone to quibble with the incoming fee.
Since joining just two-and-a-half years ago, the winger has demonstrated his potential in fits and spurts, but a return of 20 goals and nine assists in 90 appearances has clearly not been enough to convince the club that they should turn down more than £20m in profit.
Madueke only really became a regular starter in the second half of last season, with his lack of end product and perceived selfishness in the final third often drawing the ire of Chelsea supporters, with his best performance undoubtedly arriving in the form of a hat-trick against Wolves way back in August last year.
Arsenal fans don’t have a reputation for being the most reasonable, but even so, it speaks volumes that the hashtag ‘#NoToMadueke’ has trended on social media in the lead-up to the transfer being completed, while others have raged against head coach Mikel Arteta.
While Maresca has largely managed to keep a young, ego-packed squad in check, it’s apparent that Madueke’s discipline has been an issue behind the scenes, with that contributing significantly to their decision to sell.
Under Mauricio Pochettino in 2023-24, he was at the centre of an ugly incident after Chelsea were awarded a penalty against Everton, where both he and Nicolas Jackson furiously tried to wrestle the ball away from regular taker Cole Palmer.
Then, in a now-infamous modern faux pas on the eve of that hat-trick against Wolves last season, Madueke accidentally posted publicly on his Instagram that Wolverhampton was “a sh*t place”.
In December 2024, Maresca dropped the wide man for a game against Aston Villa. The Italian said at the time: “Noni can do much more. He can do much more. The moment he starts to score or assist and is happy, he starts to drop a little bit and the reason why he was not playing is because I do not like the way he trained. He can be much, much, much better.”
Later that month, Madueke was left out of the matchday squad altogether for the defeat to Fulham, with Maresca citing a “technical decision”. He would eventually regain his place as a regular starter, but evidently never quite did enough to make himself untouchable in his manager’s eyes and those above him.
It emerged in early June that Madueke was unexpectedly among a host of players that Chelsea were open to cashing in on this summer, with the feeling behind closed doors that his ‘development had stalled’, and there soon proved to be no smoke without fire as links to Arsenal gathered steam.
With the rest of the squad largely settled, disregarding the raft of loanees and outcasts separated from the first team, this was also a rare instance of a core member actually wanting to leave.
Effectively confirming the winger’s imminent move across the capital, Maresca said recently: “Noni is in contact with the new club. I guess he is going to be announced in the next hours.
“I said in one of the last press conferences, if players want to leave then it is difficult for the club and the manager. Noni decided to leave, nobody told Noni he had to leave. If he is happy, we are happy.”
This is a deal, then, that clearly made financial, sporting and disciplinary sense for Chelsea, and it is perhaps one of the first signs that a previously baffling transfer strategy… might actually be working?!
In recent years, Chelsea have moved away from the Roman Abramovich-era policy of spending on big, established names, instead stockpiling some of the finest young talent around as they look to future-proof their squad, resulting in the youngest squad in the الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز.
Of course, finances are also a significant motivation, with the wage bill slashed and the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) swerved by amortised contracts stretched over unconventionally long periods (like eight years, in some cases) as the club spreads the costs.
Flipping unwanted players for a profit is another key aspect of the strategy, which is reflected in the readiness to let go of Madueke – a player who is not indispensable, whose progress the club clearly believes has slowed – and pocket more than £20m. An amortised contract that still has five years left to run also gave them a strong negotiating position.
Undeniably, there is the possibility that Madueke will explode at the Emirates Stadium and this decision will backfire horribly, but that is a calculated risk Chelsea are willing to take.
Of course, for a club the size of Chelsea, with a fanbase starved of the trophies they had become accustomed to in the modern era, tangible success had to underpin this newly-established approach to the transfer window.
Over the course of three tumultuous full seasons since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover, the strategy has been the source of concern and frustration among supporters, even resulting in some taking to the streets in protest. But at the end of 2024-25, there are signs that Chelsea are well on their way to re-establishing themselves as one of Europe’s top teams.
The first step was Champions League qualification, which was secured with room to spare despite the club toiling in the second half of the campaign. Then, a trophy – albeit in the form of the Conference League, which they were widely expected to win and, in truth, were barely challenged in right up until the final.
But there was better yet to come, as Chelsea shocked pretty much everyone by going all the way in the Club World Cup, comprehensively defeating overwhelming favourites and European champions Paris Saint-Germain 3-0 in the final, earning £90m ($121m) in prize money in the process and looking every bit the world-class young side that Boehly-Clearlake have supposedly been attempting to build – notably without Madueke, who had already flown back to London to complete his move.
It was fitting that Cole Palmer – the poster boy of the project so far having probably quadrupled his valuation since signing from Manchester City in 2023 for £42m ($53m) – was the hero at the MetLife Stadium, shimmering under the blazing New Jersey sun with two goals and an assist against the mighty PSG.
Chelsea’s new talisman is in no doubt that Chelsea’s project is on an upward trajectory, especially under Maresca, who ultimately claimed two trophies in what became an increasingly impressive debut campaign in the dugout.
“It’s a great season – even better because everyone doubted us before the game,” Palmer said after his player-of-the-match performance. “We knew that. We put up a fight against a great team.
“The gaffer [Maresca] put a great game plan out. He knew where the spaces were going to be. He freed me up as much as possible, and I just had to repay him by scoring some goals.
“He’s building something special, something important. Everyone has talked a lot of sh*t about us all season, but I feel like we’re going in the right direction.”
Chelsea’s approach to the transfer window certainly isn’t without its flaws, with the club fined £27m ($37m) by UEFA for breaching the European football governing body’s financial rules just weeks ago.
There is a human cost, too, with a number of young players such as Cesare Casadei, Mathis Amougou and Brazilian winger Angelo treated like commodities, being bought and swiftly sold off without ever being given a fair crack.
It is a model that almost seems to be built on being hit and miss; the club effectively wasted more than £100m ($135m) on the likes of Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Renato Veiga and Omari Kellyman just last summer – none of whom have had any impact at Stamford Bridge and all, apart from the latter, are almost certain to be moved on one year later.
Whether they can even hope to break even there remains to be seen, but Madueke’s sale is at least an example of the potential benefits of the process; a player who has been useful, whose value has increased, but who has ultimately been deemed not good enough and will be sold for a significant sum of money.
Stripping the emotion out of the situation, you can see how this business model could be successful.
Chelsea’s approach so far this summer suggests lessons have been learned, with much-coveted duo Liam Delap and Jamie Gittens both having very high ceilings, and Joao Pedro demonstrating with his instant impact at the Club World Cup that he could ultimately be worth the massive £60m ($80m) spent on him.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of unwanted players, including Felix, Raheem Sterling and Djordje Petrovic, whose sales will both generate profit and decrease the wage bill even further.
The unlikely, unexpected triumph at the Club World Cup has quite literally put the planet on notice: Chelsea are back – just as Maresca said would be the case before they lifted their first piece of silverware of the season back in May.
The Italian tactician has always insisted the club is “ahead of schedule”, and now, with a formidable-looking, youthful team that is capable of going toe to toe with the very best, it seems he might have been right all along.
With Champions League football secured, two more trophies in the cabinet and expendable talent like Madueke being flipped for considerable gain, this is the closest the Boehly-Clearlake project has been to success. Remarkably, it seems the only way is up.
