Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca calls for rule changes amid talent poaching and financial strain

Clubs always seek out young talents in football, and poaching one from another’s academy or main team squad has been a trend. After the transfer of Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca seemed furious over the financial sustainability rules and suggested changes so that the club could not cash in on the academy graduates.

This is not the first time a talent has been poached from the Stamford Bridge. Mason Mount, Lewis Hall, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Ian Maatsen, and Callum Hudson-Odoi are the academy graduates who had to be sold over the past two years, and Armand Broja and Trevor Chalobah might also join the list as they are expected to leave before the end of August.

Maresca, who joined Chelsea from Leicester in June, said, “This is not Chelsea’s problem; these are the rules. All the clubs at this moment are compelled to sell players from the academy because of the rules. It’s all of the Premier League clubs’ problems.”

Chelsea is looking to manage the books after splashing more than 1 billion pounds in the past four transfer windows to revamp the squad after a change in ownership. Since the club was taken over by Todd Boehly and private equity firm Clearlake Capital, it has seen various changes in management as well as a complete overhaul of the squad.

The sale of academy graduates is particularly helpful for clubs to comply with financial regulations, as whatever the club gets is recorded as profit. Profit and sustainability rules that limit Premier League clubs to losses of 105 billion pounds across a three-year assessment period have been blamed for a slow transfer window for the Blues.

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