Exclusive: Fabrizio Romano praises Chelsea transfer “model” after surprise stat emerges

Transfer news expert Fabrizio Romano has praised Chelsea’s smart work with selling players in recent times after stats emerged showing that no clubs has made more money from transfers in the last ten years.

Speaking exclusively to CaughtOffside for his Daily Briefing column, Romano explained that the Blues have long had a good model for buying young talents and cashing in on them for a profit, whilst also praising them for making the bold decision to sell legendary figure Eden Hazard to Real Madrid at just the right moment.

Hazard left Chelsea at the very peak of his powers, and never quite looked the same at the Bernabeu, so it’s clear the west London giants would have missed out on a lot of money if they’d held on to him just a bit longer.

We’ve also seen Chelsea do well to cash in on homegrown players like Mason Mount, Tammy Abraham, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Fikayo Tomori, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised to see them top of the pile in terms of sales from the last ten years, even if they’re not seen as being as much of a selling club as others like Benfica and Monaco.

“I think it’s been part of Chelsea’s model – they’ve done some smart business by signing many players, many young talents, sending them on loan and then selling at the right moment,” Romano said.

“Even last summer I think they did excellent job with the outgoings, bringing in good fees for players like Mason Mount and Kai Havertz – and it was absolutely needed from a technical and financial point of view.

“Another example is Eden Hazard, who was a wonderful player who they sold at exactly the right moment, this was something smart, even if it was not easy to lose a star like Hazard.”