Chelsea don’t want to lose any more players as free agents, and I completely understand and understand that. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to do something about this and try to stop this from happening.
I completely understand the pressure on players to sign new contracts on their own terms. Clubs should not be bullied by agents or forced to agree terms they are not happy with. But in all these cases, negotiation is necessary and a middle ground must be reached.
There has to be a big human aspect to this too. I think you have to be careful with an 18-year-old player, more careful than you would be with an older player. How we should treat them and treat them.
After all, telling an 18-year-old academy player that he will not play for Chelsea in any form unless he signs a new contract on Chelsea’s terms is, quite simply, a threat. that. And I fear that treating a young, emerging talent this way will never sit with me, even if I understand why Chelsea do it. That doesn’t mean I agree with their hard-line stance.
I think there is a time and place to take such a hard line, which my friend on the site, Felix Johnstone, explained perfectly yesterday.
Felix said:
“There are two sides to Acheampong’s situation: whether he should renew his contract or not, so freezing him is ridiculous.
“One thing people don’t realize is that the maximum length of a first professional contract you can sign as an academy player is a two-year contract + the remainder of the season.
“That’s the deal Josh made. That’s what he literally signed this year. It’s pretty ridiculous to expect Josh, an academy player, to sign a long-term deal already with two years remaining. To freeze him out would be very harsh and as an academy we have an obligation to develop our players.”
I agree with this position.
This is not a first team player trying to sell out of his welcome. I also didn’t like seeing players like Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka having to train with the U21s in the summer. But I can understand that much more because these are the players we are actively trying to sell. But I understand, you won’t see me moan ~ degree A lot about situations like that.
But to me it would be wrong to do this to Acheampong, a player who has a huge future and Chelsea must do their best to show him the way and keep him.
I don’t think they showed him a career path. But they could have done more. I’m waiting for more information on all of this, and will edit the article with sources when I get it. But we have already heard from sources that Acheampong felt he could and should have had more game time. Reece James was injured and they were using a centre-back as a right-back. And who could disagree with that?
We are never in the room with these things. We don’t know what’s being said and what’s being negotiated. You never know if a player is getting bad advice. So we have to and will continue to take these into consideration as well. And I’m sure, as always, you’ll hear different sides to this story depending on who’s reporting the news. We’ve already heard and seen Chelsea’s briefing on this. They delivered this very quickly.
But once again, another contract situation arose that suited me perfectly. I don’t think that’s the right way. This is especially true when it comes to young players that the club wants to keep.
What is the correct way? I don’t know. But that shouldn’t stop an 18-year-old from doing the only thing he wants to do: get out on the pitch and kick a ball with his teammates. In my opinion, the club is really bad. A little respect goes a long way. Imagine how this would make Acheampong feel now. Even if he gives up and signs, will it certainly make him feel disconnected from the club? And how will that make it feel for the other players and what impact will it have on the rest of the academy, who, as I’ve reported in recent months, are not feeling at all happy about life at Chelsea at the moment and many believe there is no path forward for them? ?
Others may see it differently, but this is my position.
