Chelsea do not want to lose players as free agents anymore, and I completely get that and understand it. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be acting on this and trying to stop it from happening.
I completely understand putting pressure on players to sign new contracts on their terms. The club should never be bullied by agents and forced to agree to terms they are not happy with. But negotiating is needed in all these cases and middle grounds need to be reached.
There should be a big human aspect with this as well. I think when you are dealing with an 18-year-old then you have to be careful, even more careful than if it was a more senior player, about how you are dealing with them and treating them.
At the end of the day, to tell an 18-year-old academy player that he is not going to play for Chelsea in any form unless he signs a new contract on their terms, IS quite simply, blackmail. It is. And I am afraid that treating a young rising talent in this way is just never going to sit right with me even if I can understand why Chelsea are doing it. It doesn’t mean I agree with the hard stance.
I do think that there is a time and a place to take such a hard stance, and friend of the site Felix Johnston explained it perfectly yesterday.
Felix said:
“I see both sides of the Acheampong situation, whether he should sign a new deal or not, but freezing him out is ridiculous.
“One thing I don’t think people realise is that the max length first pro contract you can sign as an academy player is a 2 year contract + the remainder of the season.
“That’s the contract that Josh is on. The one that he literally signed this year. It’s pretty ridiculous to expect Josh, as an academy player, to sign a long term deal already when he has a whole two years left. Freezing him out for it is very harsh and as an academy you have a duty to develop your players.”
I agree with this stance.
This isn’t some first team player who has outstayed his welcome and you are trying…
Source link : https://www.talkchelsea.net/opinions/opinion-chelseas-hard-stance-on-18-year-old-is-discourteous-and-inconsiderate/
Author : Simon Phillips
Publish date : 2024-10-24 11:20:15
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