Frank Arnesen defends big spending and the arrival of Torres
Frank Arnesen, the Chelsea sporting director, revealed that the arrival of Fernando Torres during the January transfer window was inspirational to the young players at Stamford Bridge. The former Liverpool star arrived at Chelsea for a record breaking price
of £50 million and since then has earned nothing but criticism. However, Arnesen was confident the arrival of the Spaniard would be beneficial to the club despite the player failing to make an impact for the side on his debut.
Arnesen said while speaking to reporters, “If you can get one of the best strikers in the world to the club everyone is happy. This can give inspiration - a European and world champion, one of the greatest strikers in the world. Young players need to have
examples, stars. They think 'I can maybe train with Torres' and they've trained with (Didier) Drogba for seven years.”
The Chelsea sporting director spoke after comments from the likes of Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger claiming that Chelsea did not respect the UEFA financial fair play regulations. Wenger criticized the Blues for their spending over the January transfer window
and predicted they would spend more in the summer despite suffering from losses. Arnesen admitted the Blues would always be in the market for players but said they had made progressed in developing talent from their youth academy.
Arnesen revealed that he spoke to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich about the future of the club and their youth academy. According to him, Roman believes that the Chelsea Youth Academy is capable of producing talent. He revealed the Russian owner was eager
to promote young talent, “When I spoke to him I asked him what he wanted from me and he said 'in 2010 if we can get a player into the first team squad I will be satisfied."
There were five young players who made it to the senior squad this season; Daniel Sturridge, Jeffrey Bruma, Gael Kakuta, Patrick van Aanholt and Josh McEachran. Three of those five players were loaned out during the January transfer window so they could
get more first team experience. Daniel Sturridge transferred to Bolton Wanderers and made an instant impact for the side, French youngster Kakuta has made a move to rivals Fulham while Van Aanholt transferred to Leicester City for the remainder of the season.
Frank Arnesen has been accused of taking the easy way out by relying on transfers alone and not encouraging young, homegrown players. The outgoing sporting director spoke out in his defense and claimed that in order to have a winning side, they had to have
the best players. He said the impact of the arrival of players like Fernando Torres was great on the younger players and the club itself. He maintained that in order to win silverware the best players were needed and for that spending in every transfer window
was necessary.
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