“They could either be the smartest people or pretty stupid” – Gary Neville sends message to Chelsea
Gary Neville, a former player for Manchester United, expressed his doubt about Chelsea’s practice of giving new hires lengthy contracts, stating the club’s owners could either be “the smartest guys in the room” or “quite foolish.”
In an eight-year contract, there is no such thing as assurance, Neville told Sky Sports.
“Let’s assume in four years Mykhailo develops into a Lionel Messi, Chelsea would sit in this room and declare, “We’ve got him tied down for another four years on a reduced salary.
“It doesn’t matter if he still has four years remaining on his contract; Mudryk will quit, his agent will quit, and he’ll lay down his tools and declare that he wants more money.
You’ll either have to pay Messi’s salary or you’ll have a player who has been very dissatisfied for the past four years and believes he has been taken advantage of by signing an eight-year contract at the age of 22.
“I do not see how an eight-year contract can be honored if the player develops into something considerably greater than he is now in football, in this country, with players coming particularly from international soil,” the author said.
Will every manager who takes over during those eight years desire the player, Neville continued? Will the player at some point desire to return home?
“I just don’t feel like an eight-year contract makes sense in football as we know it in this nation, not the NFL in America.
“If a player performs excellently after three years of a five-year contract, you still have two years left. Eight? Simply said, I don’t get it.
“Aside from the FFP and the accounting process, I fail to see how it benefits the club in any way.
“I find it difficult to believe that the wheel can be made again and that they have discovered something incredibly ingenious here that no one else has noticed.
They can appear to be the most intelligent person in the room in two years, or they might appear to be quite foolish. I’m not sure which, but it won’t be in the middle; it will either be one or the other.
Which of the following will happen? Or, they may have altered the English football model, in which case congratulations. We must wait and watch how things develops.