Blues defend transfer policy
05 Oct 2006 - 10:05:30
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- Blues defend transfer policy
Chelsea have reacted angrily to Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon's accusation that AS Roman Abramovich's money is artificially inflating transfer fees.
Calderon believes the Blues' ability to spend extravagantly on players without having to worry about losing money is having a negative impact on other top European clubs.
He told BBC Radio Five Live: "I think it's a problem - it's putting the prices very high. He is paying a lot of money for players, but we have to compete with it.
"In Abramovich's case, he admitted to having lost 220 million euros last season. For me, it's very dangerous.
"You don't know how long those people are going to stay in soccer. If somebody decides to leave, it's going to be a problem."
Chelsea's director of communications, Simon Greenberg, was puzzled by Calderon's comments and insisted it was not possible for a single club to change the condition of the transfer market.
"It's an open market. People can pay as much as they want to pay," Greenberg said.
"We feel sometimes we have to pay a bit more because we are Chelsea.
"Clubs are not prepared to sell at a particular price because they feel that they can get more from Chelsea and therefore they play one off against another."
He added: "We have been 'involved' in a number of transfers we weren't actually involved in because clubs have put in Chelsea's name saying 'Chelsea are bidding' - and we've got nothing to do with that.
"They try to drive the price up that way. But I don't think we artificially inflate any prices at all. We pay what we believe is a fair price."