There is a lot of very boring, very technical chat about Chelsea’s squad list for the Champions League this season.
The list has not included new signing Facundo Buonanotte. Given he was only signed this week, to leave him out seems curious – especially as there is space for one more non-homegrown player on there.
Chelsea’s reasoning explained for Buonanotte exclusion
So we will post the full answer from the excellent CareFreeYouth on Twitter which explains the logic of it all – it’s up to you to decide whether it makes sense. We have yet to see a better answer out there, so we’re happy to go with it for now:
“Chelsea signed Buonanotte on loan with the plan of adding him to our Champions League squad but things changed in the last days of the window. The thinking at the time was that [Tyrique] George might be sold, which would have brought in income and freed up space,” the Tweeter tweeted.
“When the deal was agreed, there was never any plan to recall Guiu into the first-team picture. But once Delap got injured, Chelsea had to bring Guiu back earlier than expected and register him in the squad.
“That, combined with George staying, meant the financial balance under UEFA’s rules became too tight. In short, the Delap injury, Guiu’s recall, and George not leaving all together meant we no longer had the headroom to also register Buonanotte without tipping over the limits.”
Chelsea’s attacking midfielder move backfires
So really it’s not a registration issue at all – it’s a financial one. As part of their settlement with UEFA this summer, Chelsea had to show a profit on the books from transfers this summer, with only players who featured in the Conference League counting towards it.
UEFA have now confirmed that they’ve managed that – but only just. Clearly Chelsea thought it was cutting it too fine to include Buonanotte too.
It’s a shame – the games against Pafos and Qarabag are the exact games he was signed to play, to give Cole Palmer a rest.
If this reporting is true then how was the Xavi Simons deal ever going to work? Even if RB Leipzig had accepted below their asking price it was still going to be well above the cost we ultimately paid for Buonanotte. So was the George sale going to be sufficient to cover the difference? It seems kind of unlikely which just begs the question: Were we ever seriously in the running for Simons? Was he only a Plan B if Garnacho fell through? And, if Garnacho was indeed the Plan A, then why did the directors see another winger as a higher priority than depth at the 9 & 10? The move for Buonanotte and the Guiu recall were so obviously panic moves in the final hours that you have to wonder how we got caught so flat-footed. Despite all the other good business they did in this window, how did the club fail to imagine that three players (Delap, Pedro and Palmer) might not be enough to cover the 9 & 10 across 50-60 matches. I still haven’t heard anyone offer a convincing explanation.