Snak

According to an exclusive report from Nizaar Kinsella this afternoon, one of those sent out from Chelsea this summer will be Leo Castledine, the attacking midfielder who signed a new contract towards the end of last year, showing the club’s commitment to his potential.

Castledine has worked his way up through the youth ranks at Chelsea and with England, where he’s played with all the age group teams up to the U19s, for whom he made his debut back in November, picking up 5 caps and scoring 2 goals for them since.

Kinsella says that it’s going to be a mid-lower Championship loan, or perhaps a move to League One. As we’ve seen with many loans before, the most important thing is to make sure the player is actually playing. Both of those divisions have a lot of teams and a lot of matches, giving young players more chances to work their way into the first team picture.

Signing for Chelsea: "It´s amazing to be sitting here as a Chelsea player. This is a club people grow up watching and hoping to one day play for, so it´s a privilege to be here. I´m really excited to get going and can´t wait to show everybody what I can do."

"Full of confidence [heading into this season], full of motivation to get going and I don´t see a better fit than coming to #Chelsea and testing that against some top players and playing with top players."

On what he will bring to Chelsea: "I would say I am a box-to-box midfielder, somebody that likes to drive at defenders, make things happen and get goals and assists, but I also give 100% to the team defensively.

"Last season was positive year for me, and coming into this year I feel like a new player now. And I don´t see a better fit than coming to Chelsea, playing with and against top players.

"Last season, I spoke to the manager that´s now here about adding goals to my game, and I managed to do that. It was nice to get into double figures and I´ll be trying to do the same again this year."

On Enzo Maresca: “He´s fantastic. He´s top. He completely changed the way Leicester played last season and it worked. I fell in love with the way he wanted us to play, and I know a lot of the other lads did as well.

"I am very, very confident that coming here he´s going to implement his style, and the lads are going to buy into it and really enjoy it. And when that happens it´s going to be really good for the football club.

"He´s a very unique character. He´s relentless and determined but he´s got that nice gentle side and wants to talk to you as a human being. He´s going to be really good here."

"The squad is full of talent and has a lot of potential so I know that if it is nurtured right, then we can be really dangerous."

Simon Johnson’s piece for the Athletic today has some very interesting claims about Chelsea’s two major transfers of the summer so far.

Marc Guiu came in from Barcelona and was announced yesterday, while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has been signed from Leicester, without having been announced yet. According to Johnson however, both deals were registered before the 1st of July, meaning they are on the 2023-2024 accounts.

There had been talk for months about whether the Blues needed to sell before they bought, and the staggering amount of money spent by this ownership over the last 4 windows looked like it might finally catch up with them. But reports from David Ornstein actually held that there were no issues, thanks to some alchemy from the Blues bookkeepers, who conjured up clever tricks like selling a car park from one company to another.

What this means for Chelsea financial situation

It’s an interesting move from the Blues, and as Johnson writes, it tells you a lot about their PSR situation. If they were worried about overspending they would have delayed both deals into July, putting them on the 2024-2025 books.

PSR is done on a rolling three year period. So by putting them in last year’s accounts rather than this year’s the Blues ensure that there’s just two seasons to go before that outlay is digested. That means they must have (or at least think they have) the space on the books to do that. Whatever financial magic the ownership did behind the scenes clearly created enough room to dump these losses into last season, freeing us up for further moves this month and beyond.

All the talk of PSR issues were nonsense then, and the 30th of June deadline actually became the opposite – a date which we wanted to complete purchases before, not just sales.