Boehlyball continues to BURN money as Chelsea give away more ELITE talent

Robin Bairner

• 7 Jul 2023 13:06 BST
• 3 min read

Chelsea’s curious transfer policy is set to continue, with Christian Pulisic nearing a move to Milan.

According to Calciomercato, a deal is all-but completed. An agreement for just €20 million has been made – including potential bonus payments.

Even allowing for some local bias to slip into this price, it still falls well short of Pulisic’s Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €34.4m – a figure that is perhaps a little artificially low given that he has not been getting regular game time.

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At his peak – and remember at just 24, Pulisic has the capacity to go even higher in the remainder of his career – the USMNT captain has boasted an ETV of €74m, proof that he is a potentially elite player.

This is reflected in his SciSkill Potential – a figure calculated by FootballTransfers’ data analytics partners SciSports.

SciSports give Pulisic a potential rating of 123 – the highest figure in the existing Chelsea squad with the exception of Christopher Nkunku, who could reach 123.1.

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To put into context how strange a move this is, Noni Madueke and Mkyhailo Mudryk have SciSkill Potentials of 94.8 and 83.7 – way below Pulisic’s mark.

But the American is not an outlier.

Chelsea's worry transfer record

Mason Mount had a higher Potential than any other player in the Chelsea squad last season at 130.5 and signed for Manchester United for €64m – below his €69m ETV.

Now, Chelsea might point to the contract situation of both players in these instances as they only had a year left on their deals left to run. The Blues were, therefore, under external pressure to sell, but on both occasions they did so cheap.

And this is part of a running trend at Todd Boehly’s Chelsea.

Kai Havertz, Mateo Kovacic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Edouard Mendy and, of course, Cesar Azpilicueta, who was released with a year of his deal remaining, all departed for figures below their ETV.

Only Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who was sold to Milan for €16m, exceeded that figure.

Pulisic’s fee, then, is not a true reflection of his qualities as a footballer, rather it is a symptom of Chelsea’s buy-high, sell-low transfer policy.