Combining a couple small news items from the past 24 hours or so, we have a report from Sky about the first meeting of the “working group” that UEFA set up for clubs around Europe to sync up over their plans about finishing out the current season, and we have a report from the Telegraph about Chelsea’s contract talks with a few of our own players.
They’re related in the sense that the latter is keeping a close watch over the former, with Chelsea’s plans affected by whether we can finish the season in time or if we have to come up with a creative solution — e.g. temporary contract extensions or week-to-week deals if the season runs in July — or we have to do something even more drastic (let your imagination take over).
How exactly that cause-and-effect works is not made by clear by Matt Law’s report, but Chelsea have put the brakes on any talks with those on expiring contracts (Willian, Giroud, Pedro, Caballero) as well as any talks with those in line for an extension (Tammy Abraham mainly, who has not made any demands to be the highest paid player on the team — which was silly nonsense to begin with since £180k per week is nowhere near N’Golo Kanté’s reported £290k per week but I digress).
Chelsea put talk over new player contracts on hold and Tammy Abraham has not demanded a £180k a week deal #cfc https://t.co/9a75P3F6wS
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) March 25, 2020
Chelsea themselves were presumably involved in this conference call on Tuesday with UEFA, ECA, and the rest of the powers that be of European football, where the “ambition” was “maintained” to finish the season by June 30.
Good luck with that, I guess.
(The other working group, the one about how to handle the financial and legal ramifications of any of this has yet to meet apparently ... because if you don’t address the issues there cannot be any issues! That’s how these things work, right?)
European football's leagues and competitions remain hopeful of finishing the season by 30 June, following an opening round of talks this week. (Sky Sports) https://t.co/06U59IQFbG
— fcbusiness Magazine (@fcbusiness) March 26, 2020